On December 18, Parliamentary State Secretary Zsolt Németh of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs declared that Hungary would contribute half a million US dollars to the renovation of educational and cultural institutions in the Transcarpathia region of Ukraine.

The Hungarian State Secretary signed a cooperation agreement with President of the Transcarpathian Regional Council Ivan Baloga and László Brenzovics, Head of the Charity Foundation of the Hungarian Teachers’ Training College in Carpathian Ukraine, on Hungarian funding for projects of the EU Eastern Partnership program in 2013-2014.

After signing the agreement, Zsolt Németh stated that the parties had signed a similar agreement one and a half years ago, thanks to which a fruitful cooperation had developed between Hungary and Ukraine in the Transcarpathia region of Ukraine, which is inhabited by a significant number of ethnic Hungarians.

The Hungarian MFA State Secretary stressed that Hungary supported a strong and independent Ukraine, and the agreement concluded testified to that. He added that Hungarian-Ukrainian relations had developed significantly over the past couple of years, and, within this framework of excellent relations, the Ukrainian region of Transcarpathia acted „as a locomotive” to enhance the process of Ukraine’s European integration. Mr. Németh expressed his hope that Ukraine’s European integration process would continue in the future.

(Ministry of Foreign Affairs)