Authors Iain Begg | Gabriel Glöckler | Anke Hassel ... - The Europaeum

eflected in the objective of the Lisbon agenda which concerns the
modernisation of the European social model. The Commission’s new
Social Agenda (2005-2010) is focused on providing jobs and equal
opportunities for all and ensuring that the benefits of the EU’s growth
reach everyone in society.
Since the last EU enlargement, questions of minority protection and
accommodation of diversity have become even more prominent and
challenging. What does the EU do to ensure the rights and protection of
minorities within Europe, and thereby ensure its social cohesion?
The role of the EU in ensuring the rights
and protection of minorities
Varied practices among member states
The experience of the 15 old member states reveals a considerable lack of
consistency in policies directed at minorities. While some EU member
states are very progressive in their accommodation of internal diversity,
others remain uneasy and reject the concept of minority rights altogether,
jealously guarding their right to deal with minorities in their own way.
Practices range from constitutional and legal protection for minorities
through institutional power-sharing mechanisms (e.g. Spain or Belgium),
to complete aversion of the recognition of minorities even in principle
(e.g. France). The question of what constitutes a minority is debated in
international politics and the lack of common standards further
complicates dialogue on the issue. As a matter of fact, there is a fundamental
disagreement among states as to the appropriate form and content of
minority rights. Some countries will invoke collective rights 6 and selfgovernment
as the necessary political response to minority demands,
while for others the priority remains the territorial integrity of the
sovereign state. The latter are grudgingly prepared to accept minority
rights defined only in terms of individual human rights. 7
France and Greece are notoriously the EU’s “black sheep” when it comes
to minority protection. Both of these countries have so far resisted
recognising minorities and adopting collective rights.
Despite demands for the self-government of Corsica dating back to the
1960s, as well as serious episodes of political violence 8 , French authorities
have refused to depart from the principle of unity and indivisibility of the
French nation. Corsica does have a unique institutional status 9 but it
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After the crisis: A new socio-economic settlement for the EU