Volodymyr Zelensky promulgated the law on national minorities in Ukraine, sharply criticized by the Romanian government

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy promulgated the law on national minorities in Ukraine, sharply criticized by Romania’s Foreign Ministry in early December.

Interfacex Ukraine notes that, according to the information reported in the bill document (No. 8224) on the website of the Verkhovna Rada, the document returned to the Ukrainian parliament with Zelensky’s signature on Thursday 29 December.

According to the regulation of the Supreme Rada, the unicameral parliament of Kiev, the law signed by the president will be published later in the newspaper “Voice of Ukraine” and most of its provisions will enter into force after 6 months.

The Verkhovna Rada adopted the new law on national minorities in Ukraine at second reading on December 13 with a large majority of votes.

General provisions of the new law adopted in Kiev

According to the text of the bill published on the Parliament website, representatives of national minorities in Ukraine have the right to self-identification, freedom of public association and peaceful assembly, freedom of expression of opinions and beliefs, thought, speech , conscience and religion, participation in political, economic and social life, as well as in the preservation of cultural identity.

The document also guarantees the right to free use of the language of national minorities in private and public life, in oral and written form “insofar as it does not contravene the law”.

TAXone of the Russian state news agencies, notes that the law also explicitly states a ban on Russia’s “disclosure and propaganda”, the actions of Russian statesmen and Russian state bodies creating a positive image of it.

The law requires the government to provide within six months to adapt the entire regulatory framework to this document, ensuring its entry into force.

According to the last population census of Ukraine, conducted in 2001, representatives of national minorities accounted for 22.18% of the country’s population. The largest ethnic group were Russians, who made up 17.3% of the total population of Ukraine. The percentage of Romanians was 0.3%.

Why the Romanian government criticized the law on national minorities in Ukraine

In a Dec. 22 press release, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Bucharest announced that Bogdan Aurescu had conveyed to his Ukrainian counterpart, Dmitro Kuleba, a highly critical analysis after the adoption of this law, considering it “regrettable” that the regulatory act was adopted without consulting the Venice Commission and the Romanian community in Ukraine.

The MFA noted at the time that the new law represents an improved version in relation to the previous projects analyzed at the level of the Ukrainian legislature, but that “provisions remain which may have a negative impact, with reference to European standards”.

These would be:

• while the Opinion of the Venice Commission n. 960/2019 formulated on the Ukrainian Law on the functioning of the state language is critical in terms of the regulation of the use of the official language in education, the Venice Commission referring to the criticisms previously formulated in the context of the evaluation of art. 7 of the Law on Education, the article of the Law on National Minorities dedicated to education refers to the provisions of the Law on Education, therefore, the concerns of the Romanian side from the point of view of the right to education are not satisfied;
• unclear language remains regarding the monitoring duties of the central authority in charge of implementing the state policy in the field of national minorities in relation to the activities of civic associations of national minorities;
• the use of the mother tongue in relations with the judicial authority is not foreseen;
• uncertainties remain about the concrete application of the provisions relating to the use of minority languages ​​in administrations, in areas traditionally inhabited by persons belonging to national minorities and at their request, as well as those governing such information of general interest (advertisements which, among other things, contain a public offer to enter into a contract, information plaques, signs, panels, messages, inscriptions and other publicly placed text, visual and audio information which serve or may serve to inform an unlimited number of by people about goods, works, services, certain business entities, officials, employees of enterprises or state authorities, bodies of local self-government) are named in the language of the national minority (community) by decision of the village, municipality, city councils;
• furthermore, the right to manifest one’s religion or belief does not benefit from a separate provisionfalling only under the article relating to the right to freedom of expression;
• while the establishment of an advisory body within the central executive body intended to ensure the formation and implementation of state policy in the field of protection of the rights of persons belonging to national minorities appears as a positive measure,there is still a lack of clarity on how to decide which organization is representative of a minority when, for example, there are several associations established within the same national minority;
• the question of the provision of financial resources for the translation of information relating to artistic and cultural events, when it is necessary to ensure translation into the state language, is not clarified;
• the problem remains of the lack of funding for the associations representing national minorities, with the only possibility of punctual funding on a project basis and on a competitive basis, within the limits of the budget set aside annually for this purpose.

The MFA stated in the press release that it will continue the dialogue with the Ukrainian side, recalling at the same time that Romania’s proposal to conclude a comprehensive agreement on the protection of the rights of persons belonging to Romanian communities in Ukraine and Ukrainians in Romania with an emphasis on linguistic rights has been agreed in principle bilaterally since last year.

However, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Bucharest noted that, due to Russia’s war against Ukraine, dialogue on the issue has been made difficult and significantly slowed down.

What Zelenski promised in his speech to the Romanian parliament

On April 4, Volodymyr Zelensky promised, in the speech to the Parliament from Bucharest, opening a dialogue with Romania on the protection of the Romanian minority in Ukraine. You thanked the Romanians for helping the Ukrainians.

“Mutual support and respect of our peoples is a basis for greater rapprochement. When the situation allows, I want to start a dialogue with Romania to allow for the full protection of the Romanian minority in Ukraine, to ensure full support. Our future is together,” said Zelensky.