Statement on signing the Language Act into law

On May 15, 2019 the Language Act #5670-d (for the promoting using Ukrainian as the official language of the state) was signed into law. While the Libertarian Party of Ukraine supports Ukrainian being the only official language in our country, we believe that the essence of this Act contradicts its title, and by adopting it into law the state tries to regulate the usage of languages in a wider context of public interactions.

We understand the official language as the language that is used for the government paperwork. Based on that, the state has no powers to regulate or limit the usage of languages in all other types of interactions, including public ones. Individuals, legal persons, local governments, and organizations have an inalienable right to choose themselves the language for both internal and external communications.

The libertarians stand on the point of view that Ukrainian should be the only official language and should be used in all the legal acts, other official papers, certificates and so on. At the same time, based on our value of progress, we strongly recommend translating of all the above-mentioned documents into English, in order to make Ukraine more friendly, accessible and open for people coming here or doing business with us from abroad. Also, as one of our principles say that interests of the citizens are above interests of the state, we advocate that the public servants should conform, whenever possible, to the language of a citizen rather than the citizens obliged to use the official language.