Purpose and Scope

Minorities are traditionally vulnerable groups in any society.  The European Union is no exception.  Although the Community institutions over years have made a significant progress toward ensuring the equality of treatment of workers-nationals of other Member States, and even asserting fundamental human rights unrelated to integration goals, minority-specific rights violations remain unaddressed.  The EU legislation is remarkably silent on matters of minority protection.  No specific mention is made about minority rights in the body of the Community law.  At the same time, racism and xenophobia seem on the rise in Europe, to the shock of societies that came to consider themselves as “standards,” and especially to the detriment of persons whose human rights are thereby infringed.  Against this background research on minority rights protection in the EU appears particularly important and timely.

The EC/EU institutions repeatedly stated that the Community law takes its inspiration from the Constitutions of the Member States, international human rights treaties, and general principles of law.  In the absence of the EU legislation on minority protection, national systems of the EU Member States would be consulted for remedies to the problem of minority rights.  A clear analogy arises with the EU human rights legislation and policies, also previously absent from the Community law.   The Member States' national legislation on human rights then became one of the major factors in the development of the EU human rights legislation and policies.  The study of the Member States' minority protection legislation and policies therefore appears crucial in testing the hypothesis on prospective role of national minority protection systems in that of the EU as a whole, toward developing and improving the EU minority protection system.

It is one of the main objectives of the present work to contribute to the discourse on the protection of human rights in the European Union, particularly as regards minority rights.  It is also hoped that practical steps would be taken following scholarly inquiries.  Adherence to human rights and minority protection is one of the key requirements for all potential candidates for the accession to the EU.  Since the European Union evidently aspires to a leadership role in international human rights protection, there is a pressing need to monitor the EU own human rights legislation and record as to consistency and coherence, especially in such a volatile area as minority protection.
 

        Key Research Problems

In testing a hypothesis that the situation with minority protection in the key EU Member States is likely to affect overall EU minority protection legislation and policies, a series of research problems will be analyzed:

• whether currently existing EU legislation and policies on minority rights protection are adequate in the light of international law and international standards on minority protection; and whether the current (low) EU standards applicable to the Member States are fair and justified vis-à-vis those applicable to the accession countries and non-accession partners (the problem of “double standards”);

• whether the past influence of the Member States legislation and policies on human rights in developing EU human rights law serves as an indicator of the prospective role of the Member States legislation and policies on minorities in developing the EU minority protection system; and whether the situation with minority rights protection in the select EU Member States is satisfactory, so to positively influence the development of better minority protection in the EU in general;

• whether improvement of the Union’s own minority protection could induce improvement of minority protection in the accession countries, and subsequently in non-accession countries that aspire to the EU membership and/or stronger economic and political relations with the European Union.

Methodology to be followed in the present work is as follows.

A brief overview of development of human rights protection in the Community/EU law would demonstrate the role of the MS initiatives and national legislation in the EU human rights law evolution.  Analysis would concern a broad range of facts, from protestations of the Member States against the Community measures infringing rights set forth in the national legislation, to the assertion of fundamental rights by the Court of Justice, to academic and policy debates on the role of human rights in the European Union.

The legislation and practice of the select Member States will be analyzed, so to assess whether minority protection legislation provided in those states appears complete, and implementation adequate.  The evidence will be adduced by analysis of national laws, jurisprudence, as well as first-hand interviews with victims of discrimination, persecution and other instances of minority rights violations in the MS in question, as well as with rights protectors and officials dealing with minority issues in those states.

This evidence will be used in assessing concrete implications for improving minority protection in the rest of the EU Member States and the EU as a whole, on the one and, and in accession and non-accession countries, on the other hand.  This evidence will also be used in drawing conclusions and recommendations as to the areas of future policy concern.
 

        Preliminary Bibliography

Case Law

Application 8030/77, CFDT v European Communities [1978] DR 13, 231
Application 13539/88, Dufay v European Communities [1989] DR 231
Case 29/69, Erich Stauder v City of Ulm, Sozialamt [1969] ECR 419
Case 11/70, Internazionale Handelgesellschaft mbH v Einfuhr- und Vorratsstelle fur Getreide und Futtermittel [1970] ECH 1125
Case 4/73, J. Nold Kohlen- und Baustoffgrosshandlung v Commission [1974] ECR 491
Case 36/75, Roland Rutili Case v Minister for the Interior [1975] ECR 1219
Case 149/77, Gabrielle Defrenne v Societe Anonyme Belge de Navigation Aerienne Sabena [1978] ECR 1365
Case 44/79, Liselotte Hauer v Land Rhineland-Pfalz [1979] ECR 3727
Joined Cases 115 and 116/81, Rezguia Adoui v Belgian State and City of Liege, and Dominique Cornuaille v Belgian State [1982] ECR 1665
Case 229/83, Leclerc v Au Bleu Vert, [1985] ECR 1, 35
Case 267/83, Aissatou Diatta v Land Berlin [1985] ECR 567
Joined Cases 60 and 61/84, Cinetheque SA and Others v Federation nationale des cinemas fransais [1985] ECR 2605
Case 137/84, Ministere Public v Mutsch [1985] ECR 2681
Case 59/85, The State of Netherlands v Ann Florence Reed [1986] ECR 1283
Case 12/86, Meryem Demirel v Stadt Schwabisch Gmund [1987] ECR 3719
Joined Cases 46/87 and 227/88, Hoechst AG v Commission of the European Communities [1989] ECR 2859
Case 186/87, Ian Cowan v Le Tresor Public [1989] ECR 195
Case 236/87, Bergemann v Bundesanstalt fur Arbeit [1988] ECR 5125
Case 374/87, Orkem v Commission of the European Communities [1989] ECR 3283
Case C-5/88, Hubert Wachauf v Federal Republic of Germany [1989] ECHR 2609
Case 27/88, Solvay and Cie v Commission [1989] ECR 2859
Case C-2/88, Imm. J. J. Zwarveld and Others [1990] ECR I-3365
Case C-260/89, Elleniki Radiophonia Tileorassi (ERT) AE v Dimotiki Etairia Pliroforissis and Sotirios Kouvelas [1991] ECR I-2925
Case C-168/91, Konstantinidis v Stadt Altensteig Standesamt [1993] ECR I-1991
Case C-214/94, Ingrid Boukhalfa v. Federal Republic of Germany [1996] ECR I-2253
Joined Cases C-239/96 and C-240/96, United Kingdom v. Commission, [1996] ECR I-4475
Case C-323/97, Commission v Belgium [1998]
Opinion 2/94, ECJ ex Art. 228 [1996]
Joined Cases C-102/98 and C-211/98, Ibrahim Kocak v. Landesversicherungsanstalt Oberfranken und Mittelfranken, and Ramazan Örs v. Bundesknappschaft [2000]
Case C-235/99, The Queen v. Secretary of State for the Home Department, ex parte Eleanora Ivanova Kondova [2000]
 

Other Documents

ADVISORY COMMITTEE ON HUMAN RIGHTS AND FOREIGN POLICY, THE EUROPEAN UNION AND HUMAN RIGHTS (The Hague, Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 5 December 1996)

AFFIRMING FUNDAMENTAL RIGHTS IN THE EUROPEAN UNION, TIME TO ACT / REPORT OF THE EXPERT GROUP ON FUNDAMENTAL RIGHTS (Brussels, European Commission, February 2000)

Cassese, Antonio, Lalumiere, Catherine, Leuprecht, Peter, Robinson, Mary, LEADING BY EXAMPLE: A HUMAN RIGHTS AGENDA FOR THE EUROPEAN UNION FOR THE YEAR 2000 / AGENDA OF THE COMITE DES SAGES AND FINAL PROJECT REPORT (Florence, European University Institute Press, February 2000)

COMMUNICATION FROM THE COMMISSION COUNTERING RACISM, XENOPHOBIA AND ANTI-SEMITISM IN THE CANDIDATE COUNTRIES / EU, EUROPEAN COMMISSION (Luxembourg, EUR-OP, 1999)

EUROMOSAIC: THE PRODUCTION AND REPRODUCTION OF THE MINORITY LANGUAGE GROUPS OF THE EU / EU, EUROPEAN COMMISSION (Luxembourg, EUR-OP, 1996)

European Union Parliamentary Questions, OFFICIAL JOURNALS

REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE COUNCIL, THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT, THE ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COMMITTEE AND THE COMMITTEE OF THE REGIONS ON THE ACTIVITIES OF THE EUROPEAN MONITORING CENTER ON RACISM AND XENOPHOBIA / EU, EUROPEAN COMMISSION (Luxembourg, EUR-OP, 2000)
 

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