Venice Commission says new Ukrainian minority law does not fully meet European and international standards

The opinion of the Venice Commission on the Law on National Minorities (Communities) of Ukraine, published on 12 June, clearly states that the new Ukrainian law contains a number of guarantees in line with international standards, but does not fully comply with European and international standards for the protection of minorities. Furthermore, it does not reflect Ukraine’s international commitments and therefore needs to be amended on several points. 

Fidesz MEP Andrea Bocskor summarised the opinion by saying that the text repeats in many cases the criticisms already made in the previous 2017 education and 2019 language laws, which the Ukrainian legislators have not addressed in the new minority law, despite promises to do so. In addition, the text criticises the restriction of the existing rights of national minorities to education in their mother tongue, considers the restriction on the use of the mother tongue by minorities to be disproportionate and, while it considers the extension of Ukrainian as the state language to be a legitimate objective, stresses that it should be done on the basis of the principle of proportionality and without prejudice to the rights of minorities.

The Venice Commission’s opinion does not cover the acquired rights still guaranteed by the 1992 Minorities Act, which are no longer guaranteed by the new 2022 Act, such as cultural autonomy, the free use of national symbols, or the right of national minorities to preserve their means of subsistence in their historical or current place of residence. 

“A positive consequence of the opinion is that the Ukrainian authorities have again postponed for a year the full entry into force of Article 7 of the Education Law for EU language national schools, thus extending the transition period until 1 September 2024. However, this does not mean a complete solution to the problem, which will hopefully be satisfactorily resolved in the EU accession process in the near future. I am confident that Ukraine will take the Venice Commission’s recommendations seriously and that the previous critical remarks made in 2017 and 2019 will be addressed”, stressed MEP Andrea Bocskor.