Ukraine expects to establish contact with new Hungarian government soon

Ukraine expects to be able to establish contact with Hungary very soon after the new Hungarian government is formed, especially with regard to the official start of accession negotiations with the European Union, said Taras Kachka, Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration, according to a report by Ukrinform.

“There are currently numerous technical-level discussions underway between Budapest and Brussels—including with the European Commission—about the opening of clusters, as there is a need to understand Hungary’s position. We also expect relations between Ukraine and Hungary to be established quickly,” Kachka said. He added that for the time being, these will be technical consultations, as the new government is only just being formed. “All parties are striving to reach an agreement with the Hungarian side as soon as possible,” he said.

At the end of April, Péter Magyar announced that he had initiated a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for early June to discuss improving the situation of Hungarians in Transcarpathia. Magyar proposed Berehove, a town with a Hungarian majority, as the venue for the meeting, and had already met with its mayor. “The time has come for Ukraine to lift the limitations on rights that have been in place for more than a decade, and for Hungarians in Transcarpathia to regain all their cultural, linguistic, administrative, and higher education rights, so that they can once again be equal and respected citizens of Ukraine,” Magyar stated.

A few days later, during a meeting with the President of the European Council, he made it clear that his government would only support the launch of Ukraine’s EU accession process if Kyiv granted more rights to the Hungarian minority living in the country.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy told Bloomberg that he plans to have a bilateral meeting with Péter Magyar or meet with him in some other format. Ukrinform reports that Kyiv has not yet officially confirmed the June meeting, as the Ukrainian President’s schedule is not yet finalized. If the meeting takes place, it will be the first between Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Péter Magyar.

Zelenskyy also commented on Magyar's statement that the new government would only support the launch of Ukraine's EU accession process if Kyiv were to grant more rights to the Hungarian minority living in the country. The Ukrainian President said that they are working on all issues affecting the Hungarian minority in Ukraine, adding that they are also citizens like everyone else. He then stated: “Perhaps not everything has been resolved yet. But to be honest, there is no real problem here.”

The Hungarian government has long been demanding that Ukraine restore the rights of Hungarians in Transcarpathia concerning the use of the Hungarian language to how they were in 2015. The Ukrainian parliament passed a law on this two years ago, but at the time, Tamás Menczer, director of communications for the Hungarian side, responded that the language law was still far from 2015 rights. Last November, Ukraine sent Hungary a new draft education law that addresses five of the 11 Hungarian demands.