President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced the law on national minorities in Ukraine, which was sharply criticized by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Romania at the beginning of December.

Interfax-Ukraine notes that, according to the information provided in the draft law document (#8224) on the website of the Verkhovna Rada, the document was returned to the Ukrainian parliament with Zelensky’s signature on Thursday, December 29.

According to the regulations of the Verkhovna Rada, the unicameral parliament in Kyiv, the law signed by the president will be published later in the newspaper “Voice of Ukraine”, and most of its provisions will enter into force in 6 months.

On December 13, the Verkhovna Rada by an overwhelming majority of votes adopted in the second reading a new law on national minorities in Ukraine.

General provisions of the new law adopted in Kyiv

According to the draft law published on the website of the Verkhovna Rada, representatives of national minorities in Ukraine have the right to self-identification, freedom of public associations and peaceful assemblies, freedom of expression of views and beliefs, thoughts, speech, and conscience. and religion, participation in political, economic and social life, and preservation of cultural identity.

The document also guarantees the right to free use of the language of national minorities in private and public life, in oral and written form “to the extent that this does not contradict the law.”

One of the Russian state news agencies, TASS, notes that the law also explicitly prohibits the “popularization and propaganda” of Russia, the actions of Russian public figures and Russian state bodies that create a positive image of them.

The law obliges the government to take measures within six months to bring the entire legal framework into compliance with this document and ensure its entry into force.

According to the last population census of Ukraine, conducted in 2001, representatives of national minorities made up 22.18% of the country’s population. The largest national group were Russians, who made up 17.3% of the entire population of Ukraine. The percentage of Romanians was 0.3%.

Why the Romanian government criticized the law on national minorities in Ukraine

In a press release on December 22, 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 normative act was adopted without consulting 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 drafts 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 state 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 the 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 the creation of an advisory body within the central body of executive power to ensure the formation and implementation of state policy in the field of protection of the rights of persons belonging to national minorities is a positive measure,there 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.

In a press release, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated that it will continue the dialogue with the Ukrainian side, at the same time recalling Romania’s proposal to conclude a Comprehensive Agreement on the Protection of the Rights of Persons Belonging to Romanian Communities in Ukraine and Ukrainians in Romania. with an emphasis on language rights has been agreed in principle on a bilateral basis since last year.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Bucharest, however, noted that due to Russia’s war against Ukraine, the dialogue on this issue was complicated and significantly slowed down.

What Zelensky promised in his speech in the Parliament of Romania

On April 4, during a speech in the parliament in Bucharest, Volodymyr Zelenskyi promised to start a dialogue with Romania regarding the protection of the Romanian minority in Ukraine. He thanked the Romanians for the help they provided to the Ukrainians.

“Mutual support and respect of our peoples is the basis for greater rapprochement. When the situation allows, I want to start a dialogue with Romania to ensure full protection of the Romanian minority in Ukraine, to ensure full support. Our future is together,” Zelenskyy said.