Ukraine, Hungary should review all agreements on sensitive issues – international expert Tuzhanskyi

Dmytro Tuzhanskyi, Director of the Institute for Central European Strategy, said this on Espreso.

“I don't see a problem when the EU flag and the flag of a national minority hang next to the Ukrainian flag on state and public institutions. I see a problem when this flag is the same as the flag of the state. Hungarians in Zakarpattia say it is a minority flag, but it is identical to the Hungarian flag. In Serbia, a special minority flag was approved, which is different. In Romania and Slovakia, the Hungarian flag is banned from public discourse altogether,” he said.

According to the expert, the way out of the crisis in Ukrainian-Hungarian relations is a long bureaucratic diplomatic process of reviewing and clarifying issues regarding all basic agreements.

“There is the issue of citizenship. When the basic agreements were concluded, multiple citizenship was not allowed in Hungary. Since 2012, it has been a massive process for the Hungarian community in Zakarpattia to take second passports. In fact, we need to go through all the sensitive issues again, and this does not mean that Ukraine needs to give in or win back,” Tuzhanskyi said.

He believes that this process should be embedded in Ukraine's Euro-Atlantic and European integration movement.

“Going this way will also be a security issue. I see more danger when the Ukrainian state does not control the issuance of second passports for its citizens. By legalizing this option with the EU and NATO countries, we can agree on access to the list of people who have second passports. So that in the case of state secrets or other situations, we don't have any suspicions that a conditional major with access to state secrets has passports of other countries,” the expert concluded.