ECMI Publications Database

Issue 1/2003
Release Date:
01-10-2003

JEMIE - Journal on Ethnopolitics and Minority Issues in Europe is a peer-reviewed electronic journal edited under the auspices of the European Centre for Minority Issues (ECMI). JEMIE is a multi-disciplinary journal, which addresses minority issues across a broad range of studies, such as ethnopolitics, democratization, conflict management, good governance, participation, minority issues and minority rights. It is devoted to analysing current developments in minority-majority relations in the wider Europe, and stimulating further debate amongst academics, students and practitioners on issues of instability and integration that are hampering democratic development in Europe - both East and West.

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

The European Union and Interethnic Power-sharing Arrangements in Accession Countries
Martin Brusis 
Download PDF

Monitoring the Monitors: EU Enlargement Conditionality and Minority Protection in the CEECs
James Hughes & Gwendolyn Sasse
Download PDF

EU Enlargement and Latvian Citizenship Policy
Helen M. Morris
Download PDF

Minority Rights, Multiculturalism and EU Enlargement: The Case of Estonia
David J. Smith
Download PDF

The Limits of EU Conditionality: Minority Rights in Slovakia
Kyriaki Topidi
Download PDF

Eu Enlargement and Minority Rights Policies in Central Europe: Explaining Policy Shifts in the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland
Peter Vermeersch
Download PDF

Back to overview

ECMI Founders