You're reading: Yanukovych suggests serious changes be made to language bill

Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych has proposed that significant amendments be made to the bill on the principles of state language policy, and said that a state targeted program for the development of the Ukrainian language as a state language should be developed, according to Presidential Adviser Hanna Herman.

“The president proposed very important amendments to the bill. In
addition, Yanukovych proposed to draw up a state targeted development
program for Ukrainian as a state language. He suggested that all
participants of the meeting join a working group for work on this
program and its improvement,” Herman said on Tuesday in an interview
with the Ukrainska Pravda online publication.

According to Herman, Yanukovych also proposed to form a supervisory
council to “watch the development of Ukrainian language as a state
language.”

“We also proposed to include in this working group people that will
work on amendments [Serhiy] Kivalov and [Vadym] Kolesnichenko (members
of the Regions Party), as they are the authors of the bill,” Herman
said.

She added that on Tuesday in Crimea Yanukovych met with intellectuals to discuss the language issue.

As reported, on July 3 the Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine’s parliament, passed the bill on the principles of state language policy.

At first Verkhovna Rada Chairman Volodymyr Lytvyn refused to sign the
document and tendered his resignation. The parliament rejected his
resignation twice.

On July 31, Lytvyn signed the document and sent it to the president for signature.