Ukraine has taken the first important steps in amending legislation on minorities, including in the field of education, so that teaching in Romanian community schools can continue in the Romanian language, as it has been for hundreds of years, but “several fixes” are still needed, he said. – says Aurica Bohescu, responsible secretary of the Interregional Union “Romanian Community in Ukraine”. In December, the Ukrainian parliament approved three draft laws necessary to start negotiations on joining the European Union, including a draft law on the rights of national minorities, which was expected by Romania.

The responsible secretary of the Interregional Union “Romanian Community of Ukraine” explained to Agerpres that the Ukrainian parliament canceled the legislative provisions that required schools teaching minority languages, including Romanian, to gradually introduce the teaching of basic subjects. in the Ukrainian language – from 20% of the total number of hours in the 5th grade to 60% in the 11th grade.

Aurica Bohescu shows that the legislative changes took place mainly as a result of the joint meeting of the governments of Romania and Ukraine, which took place in Kyiv on October 18, 2023, and also under the pressure of the European Commission, which is negotiating with Ukraine to join the European Union, as well as the Council of Europe .

“We still ask ourselves why in areas where we have schools, learning is not guaranteed in school, but only in classrooms”

However, the executive secretary of the Interregional Union “Romanian Community of Ukraine”, who participated in discussions with the European Union Commissioner on enlargement, as well as in negotiations with the Ministry of Education in Kyiv and the State Service for Ethnopolitics and “Freedom of Conscience” from the Kyiv government, believes that the main normative act on education still needs corrections, in the interests of the Romanian community in Ukraine, which wants to preserve teaching in the Romanian language in schools.

According to the quoted source, one of the articles to be revised concerns the teaching of the minority language at the level of educational units, not just at the class level, and the return to the status of schools with instruction in the Romanian language. language, as it was before 2017.

“The most important moment that has not yet been realized”

The second amendment concerns the bachelor’s degree in the languages ​​of national minorities, respectively in Romanian.

• “We still have no changes to Article 7 of the Law “On Education”, as stipulated by the Constitution of Ukraine, which guarantees the educational process in the native language in schools.
• We still ask ourselves why in our villages, in those areas where there are schools, education should not be guaranteed in schools, but only in classrooms. We continue to discuss these changes with the Ministry of Education and the Department of Ethnic Policy of the Government. (…)
• The most important point that has not yet been reached is the baccalaureate, which is not allowed in the language in which it was studied, as provided for in Romania. We don’t even have a bachelor’s degree in our mother tongue, which means that we lack the motivation to learn our mother tongue, Romanian. If during all the years students study in Romanian language, they must complete their bachelor’s degree also in Romanian language. Now the bachelor’s degree in Romanian is only allowed for those who studied before September 1, 2018,” added Aurica Boescu.

She claims that the entire Romanian community has “constructive” demands, which are based on the provisions of the Constitution of Ukraine, as well as on international legal norms regarding minorities.

How the Ukrainian parliament made changes to the law on the rights of national minorities, which angered Romania

In December 2023, the Ukrainian parliament approved three bills necessary to start negotiations on accession to the European Union, including on the rights of national minorities, which is an important condition for Hungary, which opposed Ukraine’s EU candidacy, but at the same time the approach is also expected from Romania, which criticized the first form of the law.

Minority languages ​​mainly refer to Romanian and Hungarian, which are spoken in some communities in western Ukraine.

Budapest is in conflict with Kyiv over what it sees as restrictions on the rights of ethnic Hungarians in western Ukraine, particularly in education.

The changes are as follows:

• private higher education institutions have the right to freely choose the language of instruction, which is an official language of the European Union, while ensuring that persons studying in such institutions study the state language as a separate academic discipline;
• in classes (groups) with instruction in the languages ​​of national minorities (communities), which are official languages ​​of the European Union, the right to use the language of the relevant national minority together with the state language in the educational process is guaranteed;
• persons who belong to national minorities (communities) in Ukraine, whose languages ​​are the official languages ​​of the European Union and who, before September 1, 2018, started general secondary education in the language of the relevant national minority (community), have the right to continue their studies. in this language until obtaining a full general secondary education in accordance with the norms that were in effect before the Law of Ukraine “On Ensuring the Ukrainian Language as a State Language” came into force.

Romania, dissatisfied with the first version of the law

The original law, passed in December 2022, was heavily criticized by the Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

In a press release on December 22, 2022, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs from Bucharest reported that Bohdan Aurescu sent his Ukrainian colleague Dmytro Kuleba an extremely critical analysis after the adoption of this law, considering it “regrettable” that the regulatory act was adopted without consultation with the Venice Commission and the Romanian community in Ukraine.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs noted at the time that the new law is an improved version compared to previous draft laws that were analyzed at the level of the Ukrainian legislative body, but “provisions that may have a negative impact with reference to European standards are preserved.”

These would be:

• while the Conclusion of the Venice Commission no. 960/2019, formulated in relation to the Law of Ukraine “On the Functioning of the State Language”, is critical from the point of view of the provisions on the use of the official language in education, the Venice Commission refers to the criticism formulated earlier in the context of the assessment of Art. 7 of the Law on Education, the article of the Law on National Minorities, devoted to education, refers to the provisions of the Law on Education, therefore, the concerns of the Romanian side in terms of the right to education are not satisfied;
• the wording regarding the monitoring duties of the central body that implements state policy in the field of national minorities, regarding the activities of associations of citizens of national minorities, remains unclear;
• there is no provision on the use of the native language in relations with the judiciary;
• uncertainty remains regarding the specific application of the provisions on the use of minority languages ​​in administration, in areas traditionally inhabited by persons belonging to national minorities and at their request, as well as those regulating information of general interest (advertising, which, among other things, contains a public offer to conclude a contract, information plates, signs, boards, messages, inscriptions and other publicly placed textual, visual and audio information that is used or can be used to inform an unlimited number of persons about goods, works , services, separate commercial structures, officials, employees of enterprises or state bodies, local self-government bodies) are duplicated in the language of the national minority (community) by decision of the village, commune, city. councils;
• the right to practice one’s religion or belief does not, in addition, apply to a separate provisionbeing included only in the article relating to the right to freedom of expression;
• and a positive measure is the creation of an advisory body within the central body of executive power, which ensures the formation and implementation of state policy in the field of protection of the rights of persons belonging to national minorities, WITHthere remains a lack of clarity as to how to determine which organization is a minority organization when, for example, several associations are created within one national minority;
• the issue of financial support for the translation of information on artistic and cultural events, when it is necessary to provide a translation into the state language, has not been clarified;
• the issue of insufficient funding of representative associations of national minorities remains, with the possibility of only timely funding for projects and on a competitive basis within the budget allocated annually for these purposes.