All Hungarian conditions have been included in the framework document for the EU accession negotiations with Ukraine, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó announced on the social networking site Facebook on Friday evening.
In recent days and weeks, there has been a huge debate in Brussels about the conditions under which the accession negotiations with Ukraine should start
- reminded the minister.
"We have always taken the position that respecting the rights of national minorities must be a prerequisite for any kind of progress. Some member countries did not even want to hear about this condition, but we made it clear that we insist on the restoration of the rights of minorities, which are linked to the preservation of national identity, the use of the mother tongue and learning in the mother tongue", he emphasized.
After intense discussions, an agreement was reached in Brussels on Friday evening: all Hungarian conditions were included in the framework document for the negotiations with Ukraine.
"So now we also have a paper from Brussels stating that Ukraine must return the rights taken from the Transcarpathian Hungarians over the past years"
stated Péter Szijjártó.
Pál Zsigmond Barna, the Parliamentary State Secretary of the Ministry of European Union Affairs, announced on his Facebook page:
This means that Ukraine must draw up a minority action plan with the involvement of Hungarian representatives, specifically addressing the issues of minority languages and education in minority languages.
In addition, Ukraine undertook to deal with the problems and fulfill the expectations set out in 11 points by the Hungarian government, as well as to respect the 1991 Hungarian-Ukrainian basic agreement
he highlighted.
According to the agreement, the European Commission also monitors the fulfillment of Ukraine's commitments and reports to the member states, he added.
He went on to say that Ukraine must fulfill the commitments in order to move forward in the accession process, and the commitments prohibit backtracking.
"The government's position has been consistent all along, we will not give up an inch in protecting the interests of the Hungarian minority, for us this cannot be a subject of negotiation. Thanks to the election results achieved by the Fidesz-KDNP, Transcarpathian Hungarians are also represented in the EP, and we will take action here as well in order to comply with our commitments. Every Hungarian is responsible for every Hungarian"
Pál Barna Zsigmond said.
MTI
Featured image: Péter Szijjártó's Facebook page
