Zelenskyy signs national minorities law required for European integration

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has signed a new law on national minorities, one of the European Commission’s seven requirements for Ukraine's further progress towards EU membership.

Source: Zelenskyy in his evening video address on 3 November, reported by European Pravda

Details: The president signed the bill in preparation for next week, when the European Commission is due to publish an assessment of Ukraine's progress towards European integration.

Quote: "Today I signed an important law on national communities. We have met another criterion for our European integration. Additional guarantees for national communities in Ukraine, additional guarantees for our movement towards the European Union."

Zelenskyy was referring to a law amending the existing law "On national minorities (communities)", which the Verkhovna Rada (Parliament) approved on 21 September.

The provisions of the new law take account of some of the recommendations made by the Venice Commission, which criticised the previous version. However, it is not possible to implement all the recommendations, since some of them would restrict Ukrainian language rights.

There are unofficial reports that the European Commission intends to present a positive assessment of Ukraine's progress in implementing reforms for its EU membership bid on 8 November, but the assessment may contain additional conditions.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen is due to visit Ukraine before then.

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