Sunday, October 29th., 2017
Not on My Watch: Hungary Vetoes NATO-Ukraine Summit
Not on My Watch: Hungary Vetoes NATO-Ukraine Summit
©
AP Photo/ Virginia Mayo
Hungary
announced that it will block Ukraine’s aspirations to integrate into
NATO over a law that forces all Ukrainians study in a single language.
Hungary
stated that it cannot support Ukraine's integration into the military
bloc and vetoed the NATO-Ukraine Committee summit scheduled take place
in December, the Foreign Ministry of Hungary announced, according to a
statement published on the country's government website.
The reason for the veto lies with the so-called Law
on Education, adopted by the Ukrainian Parliament in September.
According to the law, school students will be required to study in the
Ukrainian language. The law allows for one or several disciplines to be
taught in another language — either English or other official European
Union language.
"The law specifies that the language
of the educational process at schools and colleges is the national
language. It is also stipulated that educational institutions, according
to the educational program, could teach one or more subjects in two or
more languages, namely the national language, English or other official
languages of the European Union," UNIAN news agency reported in September.
According
to Hungary's Foreign Minister of Foreign Affairs, Peter Szijarto, the
recently adopted law "brutally mutilates" the rights of minorities
living in the country. There are some 150,000 ethnic Hungarians living
in Ukraine's Zakarpatie region.
"The law is a serious step back in the area of minority rights, and we cannot leave it without speaking up," he added, according to Xinhua.
Hungary has been a vocal supporter of Ukraine's NATO
integration aspirations, Szijarto noted during the press conference,
but the September law was perceived as a "stab in the back."
According to Xinhua, Szijarto underscored that Hungary will
continue to act accordingly until the situation is "properly remedied."
In September, Hungary urged Ukraine not to adopt the highly
controversial law and warned that Budapest "will block all steps
within the European Union that would represent a step forward
in Ukraine's European integration process," RT reports.
There is no way to circumvent Hungary's veto, as only a
unanimous vote of all NATO members allows for a summit with Ukraine, the
minister pointed out during the press conference.
According to Conflict Observer's Jonathan Wade, the
Ukrainian Law on Education will further separate Russian-speaking people
of Donbass and Lugansk, and the mainland.
"Through this law, citizens
of Ukraine in the Donbass and other predominantly Russian-speaking
regions, who have been speaking Russian for generations, will have
to abandon their language and adopt one of the state-approved languages.
The self-proclaimed Republics will never accept that and their
independence claims will be further strengthened by Ukraine's
willingness to erase minority cultures," he wrote.
Wade observed that Ukraine's intention to wipe away the
Russian language was the reason the Crimean peninsula declared
independence.
"The reunification of Crimea and
Russia was also based on Ukraine's willingness to erase the Russian
culture and adopting Ukrainian as the only official language of the
country, making it impossible for the vast majority of Crimeans
to interact with government officials," Wade noted.
In July, Ukrainian President Poroshenko signed a law making
the country's accession to NATO the key goal of Ukraine foreign policy.
