Journal on Ethnopolitics and Minority Issues in Europe (Apr 2003)
EU Enlargement and Minority Rights Policies in Central Europe: Explaining Policy Shifts in the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland
Abstract
To what extent has the EU's growing concern for norms of minority protection influenced domestic policy-making in the candidate member states in Central Europe? In order to begin to explore this question, the present article assesses the impact of both domestic and international factors on the development of policies towards national minorities in three Central europen countries: the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland. Following an introduction, which places the subject in the context of the larger debates on minority rights, the first part of the article describes the ways in which regional organizations in Europe have attempted to persuade or induce the three countries under consideration to adopt minority rights policies. The second section then describes policy developments in Central Europe and considers the factors that have contributed to policy shifts. Finally, the third part reflects on the uneven impact of the EU's accession criteria on the development of minority rights policies in the candidate countries and concludes that the EU's impact on policy has crucially depended both on domestic interests and receptivity to international concerns for internal security.
