Enhancing Minority Governance in Bulgaria *
Good Practice Guidelines
The protection of minorities has significantly increased in recent years in Bulgaria, through civil society and public authority initiatives. The EU membership negotiations, alongside membership of NATO, have had a positive effect on minority governance, leading to minority stakeholders being more active in their mutual dialogue with public officials. In a democracy, understandably, there remain disagreements between the representatives of government and minorities over aspects of minority policy. Today the emphasis has moved on from the legal and political dimensions of minority rights to the policies and programmes through which legal standards are implemented. The issue now is not whether, but how, the State can implement good minority policies which are effective, efficient and democratic.
In September 2004, in close co-operation with public institutions and a range of minority organizations, the ECMI began implementing a project on "Enhancing Minority Governance in Bulgaria”. The aim of the project is to offer improvements in the approach to minority policy measures in Bulgaria.
A dynamic two-day seminar was organized in December 2004 on the participative monitoring and evaluation of legislation, strategies, programmes and projects in the minority sphere. The seminar provided a constructive forum for debates on the successes and challenges of projects and programmes across many sectors and most minority communities. Three working groups with representatives of minority communities and public authorities have since taken these proposals further. Local experts explored some of the questions by reviewing current policies towards minorities, and by closer examination of some of the practical problems faced in implementing programmes. The information and the ideas from the working groups were shared in a report. The Good Practice Guidelines that were developed as part of the report draw attention to relevant principles underpinning policies in favour of minorities:
A conference is scheduled to take place in September 2005 for obtaining further input and feedback from a wider group of stakeholders. Following the deliberations of the conference the final proposals will be officially submitted to the relevant Bulgarian institutions. It is hoped that the report and the Good Practice Guidelines will stimulate a dialogue on the improvement of approaches towards effective, efficient and democratic policies toward minorities in Bulgaria.
For further information, please go to the ECMI Bulgaria website, or read more in our detailed project description in this PDF.
Action-oriented Projects
Kosovo projects
Georgia projects
Romani Expert Groups for Romani Integration *
Moldova Project *
Enhancing Minority Governance in Romania *
Enhancing Minority Governance in Bulgaria *
Serbia and Montenegro project *
Establishment & Maintenance of Minor. Ombudsman Institutions *
ECMI Macedonia Projects*
Ohrid Agreement Implementation*
The Montenegro Negotiation and Capacity-Building Project*
Power-Sharing in Bosnia-Herzegovina*
Forced Migrants in Kaliningrad*
EU Accession and National Integration in Estonia and Latvia*
