Berehove City Council of Zakarpattia decided on measures to implement the language law on September 7. As much as 26 out of 34 city councilors supported the mayor’s draft resolution “On the Implementation of Certain Provisions of the Law of Ukraine ‘On Principles of the State Language Policy’ in the City of Berehove.”
We asked Berehove mayor Istvan Gajdos to explain who initiated this resolution, what changes will its implementation bring to the life of the city, how exactly will the residents, 48 percent of them being ethnic Hungarians, benefit from it and what was Berehove’s ethnic Ukrainian community’s reaction.
“The resolution was initiated by the Democratic Party of Hungarians of Ukraine and the Party of Regions factions, and the city council as such,” Gajdos said. “We had been complying with some of the new law’s provisions even before it was enacted. For example, street signs and signs on public buildings and premises have become bilingual long ago. It has just been legalized now.
“You asked about changes. They include, in particular, permission to produce bilingual stamps, official forms, other documentation, which will carry texts in Hungarian as the regional language along with Ukrainian as the state language. Command of the regional language, that is, Hungarian must now be taken into account during hiring by local self-government authorities on par with command of the state language.
“It should be noted that the implementation of the law cannot be completed in a day. It will happen gradually, step by step, especially as there is a need to amend many laws of Ukraine and resolutions of the Cabinet. In addition, it is important to have an implementation mechanism for the law approved by the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine.
“As for the ethnic Ukrainian community of our city, I believe that its representatives are intelligent, tolerant people with European mentality who care about minority citizens’ need to feel equally comfortable in Ukraine. This is confirmed by the results of the vote, because we had 26 ayes, 0 nays, and 8 councilors abstained. It means that the resolution was supported by many ethnic Ukrainians on the council, which I think is a very positive development.”
TO THE POINT
Press service of the Luhansk Regional Council reports the Russian language will not be granted regional status in four districts of Luhansk region where it is the mother tongue of less than 10 percent of residents.
Let us recall that the Luhansk City Council decided to introduce Russian as the regional language on September 6.
