Hungary lifts its veto on negotiations between Ukraine and the EU. What concessions will Kyiv make?

Hungary lifts its veto on negotiations between Ukraine and the EU. What concessions will Kyiv make?

Author, Svetlana Dorosh

Place of work, BBC Ukrainian Service, Kyiv

Published 5 minutes ago

Reading time: 7 min

The urgent submission to the Verkhovna Rada of a bill expanding the rights of national minorities (primarily Hungarian) in the field of language and education in Ukraine signaled the resumption of Ukrainian-Hungarian relations after several political scandals in recent months.

The adoption of the law could end the era of cool relations between Kiev and Budapest, which continued under the premiership of Viktor Orban and hindered Ukraine’s European integration.

This is an adapted translation of material from the BBC Ukrainian Service. The original in Ukrainian can be found here.

In September, when Hungary already had a new government under the leadership of Peter Magyar, Budapest refused to participate in Vladimir Zelensky’s Carpathian Integration Initiative project. This project, as conceived by Kyiv, was supposed to unite eight states of the Carpathian region to implement programs in the field of economics and security.

At the same time, Peter Magyar announced the termination of the agreement between the Hungarian company MOL and the Ukrainian Naftogaz on the construction of common oil storage facilities in Hungary to store fuel reserves for the Ukrainian market.

In Kyiv, as Foreign Minister Andrei Sibiga put it on the social network X, such actions were regarded as a continuation of the policy of “obstructionism and isolationism” of Viktor Orban.

However, after the meeting of the foreign ministers of the two countries in New York on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, the situation began to soften.

The details of the negotiations were not reported, but Sibiga’s Hungarian colleague Anita Orban did not rule out that Hungary would still join the Carpathian Initiative.

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Shortly after this, on October 1, Rada Speaker Ruslan Stefanchuk, together with deputies of various factions, including opposition ones, registered a bill granting additional educational and linguistic rights to national minorities and indigenous peoples. The relevant committee approved it unanimously.

This document can finally remove Hungary’s claims against Kyiv regarding the infringement of the rights of Transcarpathian Hungarians in the field of education. Prime Minister Peter Magyar has already responded positively to this bill. Budapest considered all previous laws on expanding the rights of minorities adopted by parliament to be insufficient - and demanded more.

The price of the compromise that the Verkhovna Rada must make in the coming days was Hungary’s promise to unblock the opening of the following two clusters in the negotiations on Ukraine’s accession to the EU: “Internal Market” and “Competitiveness and Inclusive Growth”. Negotiations are due to officially open early next week in Brussels.

The Financial Times newspaper, citing its sources, writes that this week Budapest will lift its veto at the technical stage of the process of Ukraine's accession to the EU.

Voting in the Verkhovna Rada is due to take place on October 12.

Old promises and advances

In June of this year, Hungary already unblocked the start of negotiations between Ukraine and the EU on the first cluster - “Fundamentals” - in exchange for Kyiv’s commitment to change legislation on the rights of national minorities.

We are talking about the same changes in laws that are awaiting consideration in the Verkhovna Rada. According to sources familiar with the preparation of the bill, the text was coordinated with Budapest and the Hungarian community of Transcarpathia for several months.

Already on October 5, European Commissioner for Enlargement Martha Kos confirmed to journalists in Brussels that next week two new clusters could be officially opened for Ukraine, as well as for Moldova.

So it’s not difficult to predict what the deputies’ decision on this bill will be.

In addition to Kyiv’s desire to unblock further negotiations with the EU, the Ukrainian government has another reason to adopt a new law.

Every time it comes to legislation in the field of national minorities, the authorities emphasize that Kyiv, first of all, is implementing the Action Plan with the European Union to unify norms in this area, and is not changing laws only for Hungarians.

Although Hungarians are the largest ethnic group in Ukraine after the Russians, before the full-scale war their number in the country was estimated at about 100 thousand.

In the summer of 2026, a law came into effect in Ukraine that excluded the Russian language from the list of languages ​​that are subject to protection in Ukraine in accordance with the European Charter. “The language of the aggressor state cannot benefit from the protection tools created to support the languages ​​of indigenous peoples and national communities,” Stefanchuk said then.

In 2023, Ukrainian laws also introduced a rule stating that the rights of a particular national minority may be limited if it is ethnically associated with the aggressor state.

Other minorities in Ukraine are Romanians, Poles, Greeks, Slovaks, Bulgarians and Germans. In addition, there are three indigenous peoples in the country - Crimean Tatars, Karaites and Krymchaks.

What is the new bill about?

Back in 2023, the Rada adopted significant changes to the legislation on national minorities and indigenous peoples. Then they talked about very serious concessions to the then government of Viktor Orban and other neighboring countries.

The 2023 law actually returned language legislation to the state before the 2017 reforms, when Petro Poroshenko was the president of Ukraine, except that the adopted changes no longer applied to the Russian language, recognized as the language of the aggressor.

Most importantly, parliament granted ethnic groups the right to study in the language of a national minority along with the state language.

Previously, the law provided that in such schools the volume of teaching in Ukrainian would gradually increase, but since 2023 there is no longer any mention of this. There is only a requirement to study several subjects in the state language: Ukrainian language, Ukrainian literature, history of Ukraine and defense of Ukraine. There may be more subjects if the school itself decides so.

In addition, the Rada allowed the free choice of language of instruction among the languages ​​of EU countries in private universities, and the state language to be studied as a separate subject.

Parliament then also adopted a whole block of amendments regarding the use of a national minority language in the public sphere, from street signs to the work of local authorities.

However, these changes did not satisfy Hungary. First, the government of Viktor Orban, and then Peter Magyar, demanded that Kyiv take the following steps. And the Verkhovna Rada will probably agree to this.

"National Minority Schools"

Most importantly, the new bill plans for the first time to introduce the status of “national minority school” for educational institutions where the number of students from a particular ethnic group or indigenous people is more than 50%.

According to the Ministry of Education and Science, 149 schools will be able to apply for this status - about 1.2% of all institutions of general secondary education in Ukraine.

Such schools will be able to use their native language along with the state language in lessons, during breaks, in names and constituent documents, in current documentation, etc.

At the same time, the parents of the class will have the right to collect signatures (they should be two-thirds of the number of students) and achieve an increase in the list of subjects taught in Ukrainian.

Official documents on education - certificates, diplomas, certificates - can be received both in the state language and in the form of a duplicate in the language of the national minority. To do this, you only need the request of the parents.

During the National Multi-Subject Test (NMT) or External Independent Assessment [exams required for admission to undergraduate studies - Ed.], tasks will be presented in the state language, but at the request of the graduate they can be translated into their native language.

According to the bill, this does not apply to assignments in the “linguistic and literary sphere,” that is, Ukrainian language and literature and foreign languages, which are on the list of subjects for NMT.

The authors of the bill also stipulated that if in a particular school there are less than 20% of children representing a national minority or indigenous people, it loses its corresponding status.

End of controversy?

Member of the European Solidarity faction Vladimir Vyatrovich believes that on the same day that the Rada will vote for the bill on education for national minorities and indigenous peoples, it is necessary “at least in the first reading” to adopt a comprehensive bill on supporting the Ukrainian language as the state language.

According to the deputy, “we must (...) not only hastily make fragmentary decisions on minority languages ​​under external pressure, but also conduct a consistent and systemic language policy.”

The adoption of the law on the educational rights of national minorities will actually put an end to the long dispute between Ukraine and Hungary around the so-called “list of 11 demands” proposed during the prime ministership of Viktor Orban. The language of instruction of the Hungarians of Transcarpathia was in first place on this list.