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Issue 1/2003

EU Enlargement and Minority Rights

At the Copenhagen meeting of the European Council in 1993, the European Union (EU) committed itself not only to future enlargement but also to ensuring the respect for and the protection of minorities in its candidate states. To achieve this, the EU initiated a process of accession based on fulfilling a plethora of membership criteria, explicit and implicit conditionalities, and adherence to international norms and instruments of minority protection. But how effective have these various conditions and incentives been and do they amount to a coherent 'European' policy on protecting minority rights? To avoid the charge of double standards, does the EU need its own 'Charter of Minority Rights' that applies to current member states as much as new members? And what implications will this have for minority protection after the present wave of enlargement?

This Special Focus explores some of these questions, looking at current models and mechanisms to ensure minority protection, and examining a number of case studies. As with all Special Focus sections, the Editors encourage further contributions to this timely issue, especially from younger academics and practitioners.

Articles

Martin Brusis
The European Union and Interethnic Power-sharing Arrangements in Accession Countries
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James Hughes & Gwendolyn Sasse
Monitoring the Monitors: EU Enlargement Conditionality and Minority Protection in the CEECs
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Helen M. Morris
EU Enlargement and Latvian Citizenship Policy
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David J. Smith
Minority Rights, Multiculturalism and EU Enlargement: the Case of Estonia
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Kyriaki Topidi
The Limits of EU Conditionality: Minority Rights in Slovakia
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Peter Vermeersch
Eu Enlargement and Minority Rights Policies in Central Europe: Explaining Policy Shifts in the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland
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