Hungary reiterates plans to block Ukraine efforts in EU, NATO

The Hungarian government, which is continuing to block
the meeting of the Ukraine-NATO commission at the NATO summit on July 11-12,
will continue to block Ukrainian government efforts in Western structures until
it recognizes Hungarian as an official regional language, Foreign Minister
Peter Szijjarto said in an interview with the eurointegration.com.ua news site
published on June 25. “Based on international law, rights granted to minorities
can’t be reduced,” he said. “And if the presence of 10% of Hungarians in a
population center or district enabled the recognition of the language of this
minority on an official basis, and the new law raises that requirement to 33%,
then we will resist that, of course.” Szijjarto said he understands the
Ukrainian government’s desire to reduce the Russian influence in Ukraine but
that shouldn’t occur at the expense of its Hungarian minority. Most of
Ukraine’s Hungarians live in the Western-most Zakarpattia region.

Zenon Zawada: Whether it realizes it or not, the Hungarian government is causing
many problems for Ukraine’s integration into Euro-Atlantic structures and its
obstructive efforts are benefitting the Russian government. We expect the
leaders of EU and NATO will seek creative alternatives to circumvent Hungary’s
actions, such as the decision to allow Ukraine to participate in the
NATO-Georgia commission. With the Ukrainian government having to take severe
measures to oppose Russia, we don’t expect many concessions being made to the
Hungarians at the expense of national security.