Kremin interested in remaining Language Ombudsman, but hasn’t been consulted

The Commissioner for the Protection of the State Language, Taras Kremin, has said he has not been not consulted about possible reappointment to the position of Language Ombudsman.

"No consultation, proposal, and, moreover, persuasion," Kremin said in a comment to the Interfax-Ukraine agency, answering the question of whether the relevant departments had approached him with a proposal to continue holding the position for the next term.

When asked for clarification, he replied that he would be interested in continuing to work as the Language Ombudsman.

In addition, in his opinion, none of today's candidates (Iryna Koval-Fuchylo, Olena Ivanovska and Pavlo Polyansky) meets the criteria to take up the position of Commissioner: they lack experience in human rights protection and experience in protecting the state language.

"A confrontation in society has started on empty ground, which is already hitting the authority of the positive achievements of the authorities. It was during these years that an institution was created and best practices for protecting the language rights of citizens were implemented, which should be duly appreciated and continued," Kremin added.

According to the law "On Ensuring the Functioning of the Ukrainian Language as the State Language," the Commissioner is appointed and dismissed by the Cabinet of Ministers. The Government appoints one of the candidates submitted by the Commissioner of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine for Human Rights, the Ministry of Justice, and the Ministry of Culture and Strategic Communications to this position. The term of office is five years. A person may be appointed to the position of Commissioner again, but may not hold the position for a third time.

As reported, the candidates for the position of the new Commissioner for the Protection of the State Language were philologist Iryna Koval-Fuchylo, philologist Olena Ivanovska, and Deputy State Secretary of the Cabinet of Ministers Pavlo Polyansky.

On July 8, 2020, the Cabinet of Ministers appointed Taras Kremin to the position of Language Ombudsman for 5 years. Kremin was nominated as a candidate for the position of Human Rights Commissioner. Other candidates for the position of Language Ombudsman at that time were Svitlana Bronnikova (candidate from the Ministry of Culture) and Svyatoslav Litynskyi (candidate from the Ministry of Justice).

Prior to that, since November 2019, the position of the first Language Ombudsman was held by Tetyana Monakhova, but in April 2020 she submitted an application for early resignation.