Diritto Pubblico Comparato ed Europeo

Sommario

1. Il diritto europeo delle minoranze e la condizionalità. – 2. Minoranze e condizionalità in Croazia ed ex Repubblica Jugoslava di Macedonia. – 3. I diritti delle minoranze in Croazia. – 4. I diritti delle minoranze nella ex Repubblica Jugoslava di Macedonia. – 5. Diritti delle minoranze e adesione all’Unione europea in Croazia e Macedonia: implementation o compliance?

Abstract

As declared by the European Council in 1993, the protection of human rights, including minority rights, is a condition imposed to the countries of Central and Eastern Europe for joining the European Union. Considering this background, this essay focuses on the topic of minority rights’ protection in Croatia and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia as a standard to join EU. In particular, the effects of political conditionality on constitutional law, with special regard to minority rights, are analysed. Political conditionality, in this study, is perceived as a wide phenomenon, which involves not only the European Commission but also other international organizations, such as the Council of Europe and the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). The constitutional and legislative measures on minority rights in the two countries are analysed, on one side, considering the impact of those actors on the drafting process and, on the other, looking at their contribution to the effective implementation of the measures adopted. From the observation of the latest normative developments in the selected countries, it is possible to infer that although, by a formal point of view, the European standards may be considered as implemented by the national authorities, substantial compliance is still lacking: in this context, the law in action is still far away from the law in the books. This phenomenon is rather frequent in constitutional transitions due to a number of reasons and may be solved in many different ways. Among them, one may be the adoption of a minimal and flexible standard, to be applied not only in Eastern but also in Western European countries: this solution might contribute not only to support the effectiveness of the reforms adopted in Eastern countries, but also to develop a general and comprehensive common European minority rights’ system.