You're reading: Regions Party insist on Rada consideration of language bill

Ukraine's Verkhovna Rada must consider and decide on a bill on the foundations of the governmental language policy, Regions Party parliamentary faction leader Oleksandr Yefremov said.

"At today’s meeting of the conciliatory council with Volodymyr Lytvyn, we were asked to agree to have this bill removed from the agenda. We have no regulatory or other statutory norms to accept that," Yefremov said at a briefing on Friday.

"Under the regulations, we are in the process of considering this bill and must complete the procedure," he said.

What the result will be can be seen in the session hall, the faction leader added.

"If there are votes, it means the bill will be backed and find legal application in our state. No vote means that we will continue working with our colleagues and the public by explaining this problem," Yefremov said.

It was reported that a fight broke out in the Ukrainian parliament on May 24 after consideration of the bill proposed by Regions Party deputies Vadym Kolesnichenko and Serhiy Kivalov. Speaker Volodymyr Lytvyn announced the closure of the evening session.

Under the bill, Ukrainian is an official language, while regional or minority languages are: Russian, Belarusian, Bulgarian, Armenian, Gagauz, Yiddish, Crimean Tatar, Moldovan, German, Greek, Polish, Romani, Rumanian, Slovak, Hungarian, Rusyn, Karaim and Krymchak.