Deputies of Donetsk City Council have approved a decision on the implementation of the law of Ukraine on the principles of the state language policy.
Sixty-two of the 65 deputies registered at the session of the city
council supported the decision on Friday. Three deputies abstained from
voting, according to a posting on the Web site of the OstroV information
agency.
The city council also instructed the Education, Culture and Tourism
Department to draw up and submit a development program for Russian
language and culture in Donetsk for 2013-2017.
In addition, the city council’s finance department will consider the
issue of funding for measures aimed at the introduction of Russian as a
regional language in the city in 2013.
As reported, the Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine’s parliament, passed the
language bill on July 3, 2012. On August 8, 2012, Ukrainian President
Viktor Yanukovych signed the bill into law and instructed the Cabinet of
Ministers of Ukraine to form a working group for the development of
proposals to improve the language legislation of Ukraine. The law took
effect on August 10, 2012. According to it, a language may be provided
with the status of a regional language if the number of people
considering it their native language exceeds 10% of the total population
of the region.
Odesa regional and city councils, Kharkiv, Kherson, Mykolaiv,
Zaporizhia, Sevastopol, Dnipropetrovsk and Luhansk city councils, Krasny
Luch Town Council (Luhansk region), Zaporizhia, Donetsk, Kherson,
Mykolaiv and Dnipropetrovsk regional councils have approved a decision
to declare Russian a regional language.
The Crimean parliament instructed the Crimean government to draw up
and submit for consideration its proposals on the implementation of the
language law by October 10, 2012.
The Hungarian language became a regional language in the town of
Berehove (Zakarpattia), and Moldovan became a regional one in the
village of Tarasivtsi in Chernivtsi region.
