The Commission recommends the amendment or reconsideration of parts of the Law on National Minorities to ensure full compliance with international standards. Key recommendations include:

The Venice Commission also reiterates its earlier recommendations concerning other laws, which explicitly or implicitly referred to by the Law on National Minorities (Communities):

The Venice Commission expresses its willingness to provide further assistance to the Ukrainian authorities and the Parliamentary Assembly.

The Venice Commission underscores the importance of aligning the Ukrainian Law on Minorities with international standards. Their recommendations stress the importance of revising specific sections of the Law to ensure explicit and legally precise protections for minority language right. Furthermore, they advocate for the removal of onerous mandates concerning the use of the state language, which disproportionately burdens minorities. With respect to minority language education, the Commission reiterates its earlier stance: the planned transformation of the minority-language school system should be postponed and revised in accordance with the Commission’s earlier recommendations from 2017. The cooperation and dedication of the Ukrainian authorities to engage in constructive dialogue with the Venice Commission will be pivotal for the successful implementation of the recommendations. Equally important is that Ukrainian authorities involve national minorities in consultations for assessing and implementing the Venice Commission’s Opinion. The Cultural Alliance of Hungarians in Sub-Carpathia (KMKSZ) expressed its appreciation for the Commission’s Opinion on the Law on National Minorities and for the Commission’s emphasis on Ukraine’s international commitments and European standards for minority protection. With regard to education and language rights, KMKSZ conveyed its disappointment that Ukrainian authorities failed to make recommended corrections in these areas prior to the adoption of the Law. According to KMKSZ President Dr. László Brenzovics:  

“The recent laws in Ukraine prohibit minorities from practicing the rights they used to have, years before the EU enlargement process began – rights they have already acquired. Instead of losing these acquired rights, they should be able to fully exercise them in a 21st-century European Union, especially in a Ukraine that is at the doorstep of the European Union. We also observe that in Brussels, in many cases, there is a lack of awareness regarding the true situation of the Hungarian, Romanian, or Bulgarian minorities living in Ukraine and what is actually taking place.”  

On August 10, KMKSZ and the Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Ukraine (UMDSZ) released a joint statement expressing “support for efforts to amend the Law on National Minorities (Communities) in Ukraine and to expand the rights of minorities in line with the recommendations of the Venice Commission and the Committee of Experts of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages.”The organizations raise objections to the procedural aspect of the proposed amendment. Specifically, the motion was introduced shortly before the debate, which prevented them from conducting a thorough legal analysis, crafting substantive proposals, or engaging in meaningful communication. In addition, they express regret that none of the constructive recommendations they made during the nearly one-year deliberation period prior to the adoption of the Law were included in the amendment. Moreover, the amendment is slated to be adopted by the Ukrainian Parliament in mid-September leaving no time for substantive discussion nor to submit well-substantiated recommendations. As regards the substance of the proposed amendment, the statement points out problems with the content, specifically

• the mere declaratory nature of additions, some of which duplicate other legal documents,
• the use of undefined concepts with little relevance to the enforcement of the law yet allowing for arbitrary interpretation, and
• failure to consider Council of Europe Recommendation No. 1201, namely, that an important criterion for the definition of national minorities is that their representatives “traditionally live on the territory of Ukraine within its internationally recognized borders,” would be deleted from Article 1 of the Law, if adopted. Consequently, all citizens of Ukraine who are not ethnic Ukrainians (or members of indigenous peoples) would be included in the category of national minorities.
• In their view, several passages of the draft are discriminatory and violate fundamental human rights, and they, therefore, recommend revision and/or deletion.

Dr. László Brenzovics and Dr. László Zubánics, president of UMDSZ, conclude by stating that “as a whole, the proposed amendment does not restore all the rights of minorities guaranteed by the Constitution of Ukraine, and moreover, it does not serve to restore the minority rights that existed previously.”