Speaker Stefanchuk announces new agreements with Hungarian parliament

Speaker of the Hungarian parliament Agnes Forsthoffer confirmed support for Ukraine's European integration and Budapest's readiness to continue assistance to Ukrainians. This became known following her meeting with Verkhovna Rada Speaker Ruslan Stefanchuk on October 15.

Stefanchuk reported on the results of the talks on his Facebook page, stating that Ukraine and Hungary are opening a new page in inter-parliamentary relations.

The meeting took place in Rome on the sidelines of the European Conference of Speakers of Parliament, organized by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe.

According to Stefanchuk, the Hungarian colleague expressed support for the Ukrainian people, confirmed Hungary's readiness to continue providing assistance to Ukraine and its citizens, and also supported the country's further advancement towards European Union membership.

The parties discussed concrete steps to intensify cooperation between the parliaments of the two states. Special attention was paid to the common pages of the history of Ukraine and Hungary, including the tragic events of the Soviet period.

"Ukrainians survived the Holodomor, Hungarians endured Soviet repressions and forced labor, known as 'malenkiy robot'. Our peoples know well what violence that came from Moscow means,", — wrote Stefanchuk.

The current meeting came after several months of tense relations between Kyiv and Budapest.

In September, Forsthoffer and other Hungarian officials refused to meet with Stefanchuk during his planned visit to Budapest. As a result, the Ukrainian speaker's trip did not take place.

However, in October, relations began to improve after reaching agreements regarding the educational rights of the Hungarian national minority in Zakarpattia.

On October 12, the Verkhovna Rada adopted, and President Volodymyr Zelenskyy signed changes to the law on education, which became one of Hungary's conditions for unblocking further negotiations on Ukraine's accession to the EU.

After this, Budapest agreed to advance the negotiation process on the second and third clusters. At the same time, completing the preliminary procedures does not mean automatic official opening of negotiation clusters.

An additional sign of warming relations was the preparation of a meeting between President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Hungarian Prime Minister Péter Magyar on the sidelines of the EU summit on October 15-16.

Thus, the talks between Stefanchuk and Forsthoffer were a new step in restoring political dialogue after the September disagreements. However, no specific new intergovernmental agreements following the meeting have been announced yet.

Based on materials from: Ruslan Stefanchuk (Facebook), European Pravda, Telex.