A Summary of Contradictions: An Outline of the EU's Main Internal and External Approaches to Ethnic Minority Protection

Abstract

This article summarises the main problems related to the nascent ethnic minority protection law in the EU by focusing on two main contradictions: a contradiction between the EU's external and internal approaches to minority protection; and a contradictory nature of the standards employed by the EU for the assessment of minority protection in the course of the preparation of the last two rounds of enlargement, which establishes the basis for the approach to minority protection to be espoused by the enlarged EU. A complicated web of minority protection "standards" used by the EU in different contexts is chaotic and almost incomprehensible, making the need for reform apparent. Yet, given the sensitivities of the Member States in this area and the limited powers of the Community to act in this domain, the complicated web of partly overlapping, partly contradicting minority protection standards in the EU is likely to remain intact for a number of years to come.

Keywords: EU law, EC, European Union, Law, European Community, EU enlargement, minority protection, ethnic minorities, conditionality, equality