Roman Kot
Budapest is resisting Kyiv's attempts to resolve the problem with the Hungarian community in Trans-Carpathian region, in particular, the issue of teaching Ukrainian in Hungarian schools. In turn, Kyiv is concerned about the practice of Hungarian passports being given to Hungarians — citizens of Ukraine and the creation of the post of an authorized representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Hungary for Trans-Carpathian region. As a member of the EU and NATO, Budapest tries to use its veto power for threats in order to make Kyiv go to concessions.
The History of the Conflict
In September 2017, the President of Ukraine signed the Law “On Education”, Article 7 of which provides for the full transition of studies in all public schools after the primary school classes into the Ukrainian language. Hungary saw this as a restriction of the right of ethnic Hungarians living in the Ukrainian Trans-Carpathian region to get education in their native language. Budapest demands from Kyiv to postpone the action of Article 7 till 2023. Ukraine stresses that the scandalous article has undergone an expertise by the Venice Commission and does not restrict the rights of Hungarians.
September 26, 2017, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said that unless Kyiv makes concessions, Budapest will keep blocking the European and Euro-Atlantic integration of Ukraine. In particular, due to Hungary's destructive position on 9th February, 25th April and 3rd–4th October 2018, the Ukraine-NATO Commission was blocked.
The destructive actions of Hungary are not limited to this. At the end of July 2018 the Government of Hungary created the post of an authorized minister responsible for the development of Trans-Carpathian region of Ukraine and appointed Istvan Grezsa to it, which was perceived in Kyiv as an encroachment on territorial integrity. Also on 19th September 2018, on the Internet there was a video, showing the process of handing Hungarian passports to citizens of Ukraine. The video shows how the Hungarian Consul in Berehove Gyorgy Vass took an oath from them and gave instructions to hide the fact of Hungarian citizenship from the Ukrainian authorities. In protest, October 4, G. Vass was declared a non grata person and expelled from Ukraine. This, in turn, caused mirror-like actions on the part of Budapest.
An additional factor influencing the development of the situation is the consultation of the Hungarian government with the member of Parliament of Ukraine from Trans-Carpathian region Nestor Shufrych, who is now a member of the party “For Life”, associated with oligarch Victor Medvedchuk, close to the president of Russia. In particular, Yevhen Marchuk (a representative of Ukraine in the security subgroup of the Tripartite Contact group on resolving the conflict in the Donbas) on the 8th of November 2018 stated about Moscow's being involved in the conflict between Kyiv and Budapest.
Attempts to Achieve Mutual Understanding
Concerning certain aspects of the relationship, the parties are trying to find a compromise, but the issue of education remains unresolved.
October 24, on the sidelines of the Warsaw Security Forum, there was a meeting of the heads of the Ministries of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine and Hungary. According to its results, Budapest agreed to change somewhat the title of the authorized representative for Trans-Carpathian region. At the same time, Kyiv will create a similar post, which will deal with cross-border cooperation. Hungary also invited Ukraine to conclude an agreement on the protection of national minorities.
October 25, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Hungary P. Szijjarto said that the situation with regard to Ukraine had allegedly deteriorated significantly due to the lack of amendments to the Ukrainian Law on Education and the Law on the Language. He stated this after his meeting with NATO Secretary General J. Stoltenberg in Brussels.
October 29, Budapest officially changed the post of I. Grezsa to “the authorized minister responsible for the development of cooperation in the Szabolcs-Szatmar-Bereg county and Trans-Carpathian region, as well as coordination of the development program for children's educational institutions of the Carpathian Basin”. That is, now the name of the post is not about the development of one (Ukrainian) region, but about the cooperation of the two neighboring border regions. Hungary has actually returned the title of I. Grezsa which existed before the spring of this year, adding to the functions of the authorized minister the work with pre-school educational institutions of Trans-Carpathian region.
Foreign Minister of Ukraine Pavlo Klimkin, speaking at the Forum at the Ukrainian Catholic University in Lviv, said that Ukraine needed to start a public discussion on the possibility of Ukrainians' being citizens of several countries, pointing out that this does not apply to the citizenship of Russia.
November 8, Kyiv gave its consent to the appointment of Istvan Ijgyarto as the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Hungary to Ukraine. The agrement for his appointment had been blocked by Kyiv for 4 months.
Prospects for the Development of the Situation
Victor Orban's government relies on implementation of all sorts of national-imperial programs, an important component of which is work with Hungarian diasporas in neighboring countries, including Ukraine. Such a policy has already come to fruition in Romania and Serbia, where Budapest managed to get concessions from Bucharest and Belgrade. In view of this, there is also a high probability that Hungary's destructive actions on Ukraine will continue.
