The Hungarian government welcomes the approval of a new language law by the Ukrainian parliament and will monitor its implementation in Subcarpathia, which has a large ethnic Hungarian minority, government officials said on Wednesday.
Decisions already implemented by local councils in the region can be considered the initial steps in this process, but these only represent partial implementation, according to the joint statement of Zsolt Semjen, a deputy prime minister, and Zsuzsanna Repas, deputy state secretary in charge of the policy of the nation.
The two officials voiced hope that the Ukrainian government and local governments throughout Subcarpathia would take further steps to ensure that the Hungarian language is given full regional status in administrative units where the population is at least 10 percent ethnic Hungarian.
That several Ukrainian politicians have stated that the law only applies to ethnic Russian minorities and its introduction is not justified in the case of other minorities is a cause for concern, they added.






