The authorities in Ukraine are willing to amend the rules governing the use of languages of national minorities in schools to remove obstacles to initiating negotiations for European Union membership. This statement was made by Ukraine's Vice Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration, Olha Stefanyshyna, in an interview with the Financial Times.
According to her, Ukraine is ready to make "additional changes" to the rules for secondary education in the languages of national minorities, provided that a balance with instruction in Ukrainian is maintained.
It is reported that bilateral negotiations with Hungary and Romania to reach an agreement on the ratio of instruction in Ukrainian and the languages of national minorities in schools will begin in the near future.
As previously reported, Hungary has long been blocking any decisions regarding Ukraine's prospects for EU and NATO membership due to the Ukrainian education law, which does not provide for the operation of schools and universities with Hungarian-language instruction in areas with a significant Hungarian population.