ABSTRACTOSI’s two-volume report Monitoring Minority Protection focuses on the situation of vulnerable minority groups in 15 European countries. The first volume of the report concentrates on the ten EU candidate States of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) and assesses the policies that Governments have developed to improve the situation of the Roma minority in Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia; and to facilitate the integration of Russian-speakers in Estonia and Latvia. This volume follows up on EUMAP’s 2001 Minority Protection Report, which examined the legislative and institutional framework for minority protection in the ten CEE candidate countries. The second volume concentrates on the five largest EU member States, examining the situation of Muslims in France, Italy and the UK, and of Roma in Germany and Spain. This volume was prepared with the intent of underlining that EU standards must be applied and monitored equally throughout the European Union, not only in candidate countries.

The adoption in February 2001 of Latvia’s Integration Programme was a positive achievement. However, the document gives insufficient attention to minority protection – a cause for concern in light of Latvia’s lack of a comprehensive framework for the protection and promotion of minority rights. In addition, its implementation has been uneven and the participation of minorities has been limited. In a report evaluating integration policy in Latvia released today, the Open Society Institute-Budapest concludes that the role of the Integration Programme in improving minority protection and promoting the integration of minorities has been limited so far. The OSI report recommends that the Government strengthen mechanisms for dialogue between minorities and the State, review the legal framework in the field of minority rights and discrimination, increase its support for minority integration and promote further discussions within society on integration and ethnic policy.

Monitoring Minority Protection was produced by EUMAP, the EU Accession Monitoring Program of the Open Society Institute (www.eumap.org and www.osi.hu) whose mission is the promotion of responsible and sustainable EU enlargement. EUMAP monitors human rights and rule of law issues jointly with local NGOs and civil society organisations, in ten Central and East European (and five EU) countries.

Monitoring the EU Accession Process: Minority Protection
IN ENGLISH

Monitoring the EU Accession Process: Minority Protection
in LATVIAN and RUSSIAN
Contents, acknowledgments, foreword, preface
Monitoring the EU Accession Process: Minority Protection
Minority Protection in Latvia
((pdf Latvian, PDF, 906 KB)pdf)
((pdf Russian, PDF, 977 KB)pdf)