The Minority Intergroup met the Hungarian delegation from Sub-Carpathia

In his presentation Mr Miklós Kovács, the President of the KMKSZ presented the problems and the shortcomings of the Ukrainian electoral system, which are disadvantageous for the ethnic minorities. The number of the Hungarians is around 150 000 in Sub-Carpathia, which makes impossible for a Hungarian political party to reach the 5% parliamentary threshold. Accordingly, the parliamentary representation is possible only by representative from individual constituencies. Therefore, it is very important to create a constituency that includes the majority of the Hungarian population living in the area. In the last ten years this criteria was guaranteed by the relevant clauses of the electoral law aimed at the respecting the ethnical composition of the regions. However, the new electoral law does not contain any rule on defining the constituencies with respect to the ethnical composition of the population. "Consequently, for the Hungarian community in Sub-Carpathia it is of utmost importance to create such a constituency that contains the majority of the Hungarian minority ensuring the chance to elect a representative, who can consistently represent the interests of the Hungarian minority on the national level." – said Miklós Kovács. The borders of the constituencies will be drawn in April-May, therefore it was important that the visit of the Hungarian delegation from Sub-Carpathia to Brussels took place before that.  

Mr László Brenzovics, the Vice-President of the KMKSZ and the Vice-President of the Sub-Carpathian County Council in his speech pointed out the troubles with the education system of the Hungarian minority and the equivalence of the degrees. The Ukrainian State does not ensure any possibilities for the university entrance examinations to be taken in a minority language. It is not formed a coherent system and method for the equivalence of the degrees which are gained in other countries either. This creates a serious problem for those people who belong to an ethnic minority and want to study in a university or make carrier in the academic sphere. "The question of learning and studying in ones mother language is an essential issue to save the identity of a national minority" – emphasized in his speech László Brenzovics.

Kinga Gál, the Vice-Chair of the Minority Intergroup and the Chair of the meeting emphasized in her remarks that it is very important to give the chance to the ethnic minorities to present their problems personally. In this spirit the Intergroup welcomed every minority organization to present their problems in the European Parliament in the last two and a half years. The Intergroup could strengthen their voice and forwarded their information to other MEP's. The Vice-Chair called on the Ukrainian government to be adherent with the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities and the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. "I am glad that our guests can meet with prominent members of the EU-Ukraine Delegation of the European Parliament, the European Commission and the European External Service during their visit." – said Kinga Gál after the meeting.