Minority Rights in Terms of the EU Conditionality- Focusing On Serbia

• Main Author: Edita Nuhiu
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Danubius University 2019-07-01
• Series: Acta Universitatis Danubius: Relationes Internationales
• Subjects: minorities; european union; conditionality; serbia; preshevo valley
• Online Access: http://journals.univ-danubius.ro/index.php/internationalis/article/view/6113/5127

This article examines the minority rights as foreseen in the context of the european union; presenting an overview of the major acts of the eu institutions towards the minority rights issue, as well as the steps undertaken for the incorporation of minority rights into the official documents of the union. Further on, this work will provide some insights from the case of serbia, talking more about how these rights are implemented, while taking into consideration the role of conditionality in joining the european union. The impact that conditionality has in nowadays developments in serbia deserves to be further discussed, since the evolution of the political spectrum of serbia has changed a lot after the fall of milosevic’s regime in 2000, and the country has entered the democratization process. European union conditionality plays a major role in the minority issue as well, as the minority rights are portrayed as one of the core values of eu. In this way, the progress achieved by serbia until now in the implementation of minority protection criteria set by the european commission will be discussed. Moreover, this topic will be narrowed down with the help of a specific case such as preshevo valley in the southern part of serbia, and its albanian minority living there and comprising the majority of the population according to the latest census. At the same time, this case is of a particular importance considering the complicated relations between the two nations.