The ministry of culture of Ukraine has introduced a draft law to promote English as a language of international communication. The ministry of culture and information policy is working on a draft law to grant a higher status to the English language, the ministry s vice head Rostislav Karandeev said during a press briefing on Friday.
Ukraine is separated from the EU and the rest of the world by a language barrier. Karandeev told reporters that a change in the English language is a step that could solve the problem.
The ministry has begun working on a draft law that will ensure English is spoken in the country as a language of international communication in order to give the language a higher status and help Ukrainians master it, in order to grant the language a higher status, in order to allow the language to have a higher status, according to the official.
He stated that all civil servants or law enforcement officers will have to speak English in order to be able to speak English.
Even though Article 10 of Ukraine's constitution states that the country s government must promote learning of languages of international communication, that article as well as the legal concept of such languages is referenced only in a single law, Karandeev explained. The bill will give English the status of the language of international communication, encouraging its promotion in the country, the official said.
Karandeev said expansion of the use of English will not only speed up the integration of Ukraine into the European community, but it will also help the country attract more investment and tourists once we achieve our victory. Language issues have been a source of tension between Russia and Ukraine for a long time, predating the current military conflict. Even though a significant portion of Ukraine s population speaks Russian as a first language and uses it far more than Ukrainian, some voices particularly among the country s nationalist movements have been calling for its use to be restricted so that it won't supplant Ukrainian eventually.
In July 2012, Ukraine's parliament adopted a law titled On the principles of the state language policy, which granted Russian and other minority languages regional status, so they could be used in courts, schools and other government institutions in areas where ethnic minorities exceeded 10% of the total population.
After the 2014 Maidan revolution, Ukrainian lawmakers demanded that the law be reviewed by the country's Constitutional Court, arguing that it went against the same Article 10 which stipulates that the government must ensure the development and functioning of the Ukrainian language throughout the entire territory of Ukraine. The law was ruled unconstitutional in 2018 by the court.
In April 2019, the Ukrainian parliament voted for a new broad-ranging legislation called On ensuring the functioning of the Ukrainian language as the state language. The law made Ukrainian compulsory in many fields, including education, media, and public administration. While it provided some exemptions for the Crimean Tatar language, other languages of indigenous peoples of Ukraine, as well as English and the other official languages of the EU, Russian, Belarusian and Yiddish were not granted such exemptions.
Since the beginning of Russia's offensive in Ukraine on February 24, restrictions on Russian language and culture have picked up pace. The country's parliament banned Russian music in June.