PACE approves recommendations to resolve Hungary, Ukraine conflict

The conflict between Hungary and Ukraine over language
in education was brought to a head on Oct. 12 when a large majority in the
Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe voted to approve
recommendations for the Ukrainian government to resolve the conflict. Among its
recommendations was allowing certain schools to conduct full instruction in the
native language of an ethnic minority, rather than mixed-language instruction
suggested by the Ukrainian government. The resolution condemned Ukraine’s
parliament for approving the law on education without consulting ethnic
minorities. It also said the law has numerous legal issues, which will be
considered by the Venice Commission.

On Oct. 10, the Hungarian foreign minister visited the
Ukrainian city of Uzhgorod near the Hungarian border and warned his government
will initiate a review of the Ukraine-EU Association Agreement because the new
standards in Ukraine’s law on education, signed by the president on Sept. 26,
violates its standards. The next day, RFE/RL reported that the EU foreign
affairs council would reject such attempts.

Zenon Zawada: Contrary to
our initial view that Hungary workedwith the Kremlin in opposing the law, the Hungarian government seems to have
more likely manufactured this international scandal on its own in order to
mobilize public support ahead of approaching parliamentary elections. Even
after the rather favorable resolution by PACE, the Hungarian government
continued to try to score points with its electorate, releasing a statement
this morning alleging that Ukraine’s law on education “was a knife in the back”
of Hungary, the latest in a series of dramatic statements.

For investors, it’s worth considering the
Hungarians (and Romanians, to a lesser degree) are playing a risky game in
exploiting Ukraine’s attempts at nation-building for their own political gains.
Their complaints don’t raise as much concern as the tone in which they’ve been
expressed, which has the ability to stir separatist sentiment in Ukraine’s
Zakarpattia region bordering Hungary. At the same time, it’s better that Prime
Minister Orban took up the issue rather than the Kremlin-aligned nationalists,
who have called for reclaiming land in this region. Needless to say, the scandal
played into the hands of the Kremlin, whose media have delightfully exploited
the conflict to the fullest extent.