MINELRES: Update on JEMIE Special Focus: EU Enlargement and Minority Rights

[MINELRES moderator]

Original sender: William McKinney <mckinney@ecmi.de>


JEMIE Special Focus Issue 1/2003

http://www.ecmi.de/jemie/specialfocus.html

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

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

 Helen M. Morris
EU Enlargement and Latvian Citizenship Policy

 David J. Smith
Minority Rights, Multiculturalism and EU Enlargement: the Case of
Estonia

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