​The Law on Minorities introduced by the Ukrainian Parliament in recent days does not ensure the further provision of the constitutional rights of national minorities in Ukraine and does not restore their previous rights, the Hungarian Cultural Union of Subcarpathian Ukraine (KMKSZ) declares, the official Hungarian press reports. agency MTI, quoted by News .ro.

“It is with regret that we state that when making changes to the Law on Minorities, the constructive proposals of Hungarian organizations were not taken into account, even this time regarding making changes,” KMKSZ wrote.

The adopted law canceled one of the important criteria for defining national minorities, namely, that its representatives traditionally live on the territory of Ukraine, and therefore, the concept of a national minority was emptied. “This leads to the exclusion of any collective rights related to minorities,” the statement emphasized.

According to the statement of the president of KMKSZ, also sent to the Hungarian press agency MTI, “the fact that some provisions of the law are discriminatory or have only a declarative nature may leave room for arbitrary interpretations.”

The recently adopted amendment does not guarantee minorities the future application of the rights guaranteed to them by the Constitution and international documents, nor does it restore their previous rights, KMKSZ said in a statement.

The Verkhovna Rada adopted a new law on national minorities (communities) in Ukraine in December 2022. After the Venice Commission criticized several texts of the law in June of this year, on August 13, the Kyiv parliament adopted a proposal to amend the law.

Adoption of the law on minorities is one of the important conditions for the start of negotiations on Ukraine’s accession to the EU, the Hungarian agency MTI notes.