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Slow Consolidation of European Values: Endangered Minority Rights after the Croatian Accession to the EU

A commitment to a core European value of respect for the rights of persons belonging to minorities had been made a part of pre- accession conditionality already for the countries of Central and Eastern Europe and remained the conditionality criterion for Croatia. This vealue, however, is not attained by simply adopting the right laws and introducing new institutions. Though nomotechnic requirements with regard the rights of minorities had been applied particularly rigorously in the EU accession procedure of Croatia, in order for the value to grasp roots in people's minds, specific social and cultural conditions needed to be established. This yet seems not to be a case in the Croatian society, though Croatian political leaders in the course of the Eu accession made an impression they are fully committed to European values and realisation of minority rights and were vigorously pursuing reforms by producing Strategies and Action Plans for realisation of minority rights. On the other hand, the support for the values of inclusion, tolerance, and non-discrimination has not been embraced by the majority of Croatian population. For example, two massive mobilization efforts were initiated by citizens’ associations to diminish minority rights through public referenda, advocating in the first one for the outlaw co-official status of minority languages and scripts in cities and places and scaling down in the second one the rights of parliamentary deputies representing ethnic minorities. Both happened in the aftermath of the EU accession and both demonstrate that consolidation of this value has not taken place despite the EU membership accession conditionality. In addition, a number of highly ranked politicians in the past years have demonstrated a deep mistrust towards ethnic pluralism of the country. They have intimidated citizens belonging to minorities by asking them to leave Croatia in case they do not like it. Such a climate does not ensures the fair and proper treatment of persons belonging to minorities and realisation of their rights. This presentation will provide an answer why the Croatian society has not embraced the value of respect for the rights of persons belonging to minorities and will provide ideas on how to achieve democratic consolidation of the value of respect for the rights of persons belonging to minorities in the Croatian society.

democratic consolidation, European values, minority rights, weakness of the conditionality policy

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