Rada excludes russian and Moldovan languages from list of those requiring support and protection
The Verkhovna Rada has excluded russian and Moldovan languages from the list of those requiring support and protection under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. This was announced by the deputy head of the parliamentary committee on humanitarian and information policy Yevheniya Kravchuk (the Servant of the People faction) on Facebook, Ukrainian News Agency reports.
"Without exaggeration, a historic vote! The Parliament has just updated the list of languages that are protected by the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages! 264 votes in favor! As a basis and in general - with immediate signing! We are removing russian. It is not under threat, does not belong to minority languages and should not be an object of protection under the Charter, and accordingly, should not receive state support," she said.
Also, according to her, the Verkhovna Rada corrected a historical inaccuracy: instead of the artificial "Moldovan" language, the law fixed Romanian, as recognized in Moldova itself.
In addition, instead of the non-existent "Jewish", Hebrew and Yiddish were added, and instead of the general "Greek", Modern Greek, unique Rumey and Urum languages (the languages of the Nadazov Greeks) were defined, and the languages of the indigenous peoples of Ukraine were added - Karaite and Krymchatska, as well as Romani and Czech.
In general, according to Kravchuk, the final version of the law provides that 18 languages will be protected: Belarusian, Bulgarian, Gagauz, Hebrew, Yiddish, Karaite, Crimean Tatar, Krymchatska, German, Modern Greek, Polish, Romani, Rumey, Romanian, Slovak, Hungarian, Urum, and Czech.
As Ukrainian News Agency earlier reported, in October, the Cabinet of Ministers proposed to the Verkhovna Rada to exclude russian and Moldovan languages from the list of those that require support and protection in accordance with the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages.
The Cabinet of Ministers proposed to establish that in Ukraine the provisions of the Charter would apply to 12 languages: Belarusian, Bulgarian, Gagauz, Crimean Tatar, Modern Greek, German, Polish, Romanian, Slovak, Hungarian, Czech and Hebrew.
Thus, it was proposed to exclude russian and Moldovan languages from the list of those that require support and protection in accordance with the Charter. In addition, it was proposed to replace Greek with Modern Greek, Jewish with Hebrew and add Czech to the list of languages in the law on the ratification of the Charter.
The explanatory note to the bill noted that the exclusion of the russian language, which is the state (official) language of a state recognized by the Verkhovna Rada as an aggressor or occupying state, does not violate Ukraine's obligations under the Charter and is consistent with the provisions of the Charter's preamble, according to which the protection and development of regional or minority languages should not harm official languages and the need to study them.
It was also proposed to remove the Moldovan language from the list of languages to which Ukraine undertakes to apply the provisions of the Charter in connection with the recognition of the Romanian language as the state language of Moldova.