Union’s expansion offers way to boost spirit of democracy across the entire continent

Date: 03/12/1998

By Simon Taylor

ENLARGING the EU to take in 11 new countries offers a unique opportunity to cement the rule of law and respect for human rights in the countries applying for membership.

But the Union's approach has so far produced mixed results, prompting criticisms from campaigners that its pressure on applicant countries has been inconsistent and lacking in credibility.

According to the political conditions for EU membership spelled out by Union leaders at their summit in Copenhagen in 1993, applicants must put in place institutions which “guarantee democracy, the rule of law, human rights and respect for and protection of minorities”.

The Commission's latest report on the candidates' progress towards meeting the criteria for membership concluded that “respect for fundamental rights is generally guaranteed”. But it warned that nearly all countries still had a long way to go, for example, in ensuring that there were enough qualified people to provide an efficient and independent judiciary.

One of the main criticisms levelled at the applicants is the lack of improvement in the treatment of Roma minorities. The reports highlight the fact that Roma people still suffer discrimination in a number of countries including Hungary, Slovakia, Bulgaria and the Czech Republic, with Romania singled out as the worst offender.

One area where Romania has made significant progress, however, is in its treatment of the country's large Hungarian minority, especially in its efforts to set up a Hungarian-German university to address the minority's demands for educational facilities.

At the same time, the Commission notes that the situation of Slovakia's half a million ethnic Hungarians looks set to improve, not least because the new government's four-way coalition includes the Hungarian minority party.

Latvia also won significant praise from the Commission for its vote in favour of changing its citizenship law to make it easier for the country's sizeable Russian population to obtain full rights. But Estonia was criticised for failing to amend its legislation to enable stateless children to win citizenship.

In its assessment of the overall situation on human rights in the applicant countries, the Commission concluded that “while there are no new problems or setbacks to the democratic functioning of the political and legal systems in the candidate countries, very little has been accomplished in the past 18 months”.

The decidedly mixed performance of the applicant countries on the rule of law and human rights since the Commission drew up its initial assessment in July 1997 raises questions over whether the EU's stance on the issue provides sufficient incentives for the candidates to clean up their acts.

Dangling the carrot of Union membership has probably produced the best results in Slovakia, which was left out of the first wave of countries in 1997 precisely because it failed to meet the Copenhagen criteria on respect for democracy.

Spurred on by the hopes of being invited to join the first wave of candidates next year, the new Slovakian government has made ambitious pledges to make up the democratic deficit within six months of taking office. Planned changes include new protections for minority language speakers and greater rights for opposition groups in the political process. Some argue, however, that Slovakia is in a position to make a great leap forward simply because it has so much ground to recover compared with the other applicants.

Latvia is another country where the hope of EU membership has acted as an incentive for the population to support improvements in minority rights.

But the prospect of eventual Union accession for Turkey seems to have done little so far to put pressure on Ankara to improve its record on human rights. That is the view which emerges from the Commission's progress report, which states: “The Commission acknowledges the Turkish government's commitment to tackle human rights violations in the country, but this has not so far had any significant effect in practice.”

While the desire for EU membership has boosted human rights in some countries, it is those with an easily identifiable target (namely, the hope of being invited to join the first wave) which seem to have made the greatest efforts to improve matters.

Whether those states already included in the privileged group of front runners will keep up the pace of reform, and whether the EU has the political will to crack down on them if they drag their feet, remains to be seen.