Hungary badly threatened Ukraine

Hungary has expressed commitment to blocking Ukraine's further integration into the European Union, as Kiev has adopted a controversial educational legislation, which critics estimate limits minority language teachings in schools.

Hungary's Foreign Minister Peter Szijarto said yesterday that the consequences for Kiev would be <x0 vedible”, after Ukraine's president, Petro Porosenko, has signed the legislation, with which the Ukrainian language is envisioned to be taught from fifth grade in state schools.

“Hungary will block all steps within the European Union, which could be steps forward in the Ukraine's European integration process”, Minister Sziyarrto said in comments to Hungarian news agency MTI, which have been posted on the Hungarian Government Web site.

“We can compete that all this will be painful for Ukraine in the future”, Szijjarto stressed.

These comments were made two months before the Eastern Partnership summit in Brussels. The proposal that Free Europe Radio has made available last week suggests that the summit will be dominated by EU-related issues with Ukraine and two other former Soviet states, Georgia and Moldova.

The legislation highlights Ukrainian state language role

The new law in Ukria doesn't forbid teaching in other languages; students can learn more in their native languages as separate matter.

Poroshenko has said that this matter “highlights the role of Ukrainian as a state language in the curriculum process” and “provides the same opportunity for all”.

European Union spokeswoman Maja Kocijanciq has asked Ukraine for the new legislation to send to the Council of Europe to ensure what she has named <x0opinion of the expert” that this law meets European Union standards.

It has stressed that such legislation “should be carefully balanced” between the goal of state language status for Ukrainian and “the need to protect minority and regional languages”.

President Porosenko's assurances of this law have not eased the concerns of ethnic communities in Ukraine, including Polish, Romanians and Hungarians.

Ukraine's legislation has also angered officials of other Ukrainian neighbouring countries.

Romania's president, Klaus Iohannis, said the “legislation drastically limits” the approach of minority groups in their respective languages. In protest he has cancelled a previous visit to Kiev.

Russia was particularly tough in its criticism, stressing that the legislation aimed at “to force it to establish a unilateral regime in the national state of”.

Poroshenko: Out of the Russian Empire

Language has become hot issues throughout Ukraine, especially in eastern regions, where most people speak Russian.

The new legislation has rejected the 2012 law, adopted under then-President Viktor Yanuovich, ally of the Kremlin, who after two years had fled to Russia because of mass protests against its policies.

According to that legislation, minorities are allowed to use their languages in areas where they constituted more than 10% of the population.

Kiev had targeted greater integration with the European Union under the pro-Western government, which came to power following the overthrow of Yanukovovichi.

After that, Russia seized Ukraine's Crime and supported separatists in the eastern part of Ukraine.

In June, Ukraine has secured visa-free travel for its citizens in most of the EU countries, in a development President Porosenko has praised as our country's “final exit from the Russian Empire”.

On September 1st, the Association Agreement has entered into force, which has strengthened ties between Ukraine and the EU.

The former president's decision, Viktor Yanukovich, not to sign this agreement in 2013 was one of the causes of mass protests that brought his overthrow.