The Right of the Minorities to Participate in the Public Life on Local Level: The Case of Republic of Macedonia in the Framework of the EU Policy of ‘Regional Approach’
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.4335/13.3.879-895(2015)Keywords:
power sharing, regional approach, EU enlargement, policy, local self-governmentAbstract
The paper aims to contribute to the clarification of several aspects of the minorities’ right to participate in public life on local level. It considers the following elements: analysis of the Macedonian legal and constitutional framework; analysis of relevant provision of the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities and the European Union’s treatment of the issue in the framework of its foreign policy of ‘Regional Approach’ (1996-1999). The analysis relies on two comparisons. Firstly, it contrasts the content of the EU conditionality in the field of minority rights developed during the 1990’s in the framework of the eastern enlargement with the content of conditionality in the same field developed in the framework of the ‘Regional Approach’. Secondly, the study encompasses a brief comparison with the later development of the relevant standards within the framework of the subsequently developed EU enlargement policy of Stabilisation and Association Process (SAP). Considering that the EU relies on the standards developed in the system of Council of Europe in the field of minority rights, the analysis in particular attempts to contribute to the understanding of the dynamics of this ‘’borrowing’’, during which the Council and the Commission rely on certain aspects of the body of rules of the Council of Europe, while omitting others.
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