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Ukraine’s Parliament Approves Hungarian Minority Education Rights Bill, Zelenskyy To Sign
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Ukraine's parliament approved a law expanding educational rights for national minorities, including Hungarian-language schooling. The measure is aimed at enabling two EU accession clusters for Kyiv amid Brussels talks.
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Minority law clears EU path
Ukraine’s parliament approved a bill on education rights of national minorities, guaranteeing Hungarian-language education and providing legal certainty for minority schools, and the measure was sent to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for signature. Hungarian Foreign Minister Anita Orbán said Budapest was “awaiting news from Kyiv” as Ukrainian lawmakers prepared to debate and vote on the minority rights bill. Hungarian Foreign Minister Anita Orbán also said the legislation would strengthen educational and language rights for Ukraine’s Hungarian minority, including legal guarantees for Hungarian-language instruction and the network of schools providing it.
“The bill will now be sent to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for signature.”
The legislation was framed as a condition for Hungary to lift its veto on advancing Ukraine’s EU accession talks, with the dispute centered on the rights of an estimated 100,000 to 150,000 ethnic Hungarians in western Ukraine. Earlier, Hungary urged Ukraine to guarantee Hungarian-language education and legal protections for minority schools, with Budapest saying it would monitor implementation through an education subcommittee in Ukraine’s Transcarpathia region.
Orban, Sybiha, and monitoring
After the vote, Orbán stressed that “The implementation is what will be very important after this; we will monitor it,” and she pointed to an education subgroup under a bilateral intergovernmental committee.
Andrii Sybiha posted on X that “The dialogue between Ukraine and Hungary is strengthening more and more, based on mutual respect, good neighborly relations, and a shared European future for the benefit of our peoples,” as the law moved toward entry into force.
Hungary’s Foreign Minister Anita Orbán said the legislation sought “to ensure that there are adequate legal safeguards that guarantee the education of Hungarian children in their mother tongue and the functioning of Hungarian schools,” while warning that “the process is not yet finished.”
The Anadolu Ajansı account said Hungary would monitor the law’s implementation alongside representatives of Hungarian minority organizations in Ukraine’s Transcarpathia region through an education subcommittee.
The Kyiv Independent said Zelenskyy signed the bill into law on Oct. 12, and it described the vote as paving the way for the EU to formally open two more accession clusters with Ukraine and Moldova at a meeting in Luxembourg on Oct. 13.
Clusters, dates, and what’s next
The Daily News Hungary account said the law’s approval opened the way for Hungary to allow the next procedural steps toward opening two additional groups of EU accession negotiating chapters, while noting that further decisions were required and key steps depended on unanimous support of all EU member states.
The Euromaidan Press account said Hungary had blocked four stages of Ukraine’s membership process over the matter and that the bill was meant to lift the block on Ukraine’s path toward EU membership.
The Kyiv Post reported that Bill No.16119 received 273 votes in its first reading and 266 votes in the final vote, and it said Parliament instructed Verkhovna Rada Speaker Ruslan Stefanchuk to sign the legislation and send it to President Volodymyr Zelensky for approval.
The Kyiv Independent said ambassadors of the 27 EU countries must now decide whether to open the next clusters at a meeting of permanent representatives later on Oct. 12, and it described the formal opening as expected at the Intergovernmental Conference on Oct. 13.
The Anadolu Ajansı account said Hungary urged Ukraine to guarantee Hungarian-language instruction and legal certainty for minority schools, and it tied the dispute to Hungary’s opposition to progress in Ukraine’s EU accession talks.