The Application of Justice and Home Affairs and the Position of Minorities: The Case of Hungary. CEPS Policy Brief No. 18, March 2002

[From the Introduction]. Minority Issues from the EU Perspective When one considers the substance of European Union (EU) official documents in a simplified way, national and ethnical minorities may appear in three contexts. The first belongs to external relations (common foreign and security policy), which cover minorities as a matter of human rights in third countries. These documents call upon the (third) countries concerned to respect human rights and international and European standards on minorities’ rights that are also endorsed by the EU. In this regard, the legislation being developed in view of a common European migration policy contains provisions about the respect of minority rights in order to prevent further migration waves. The second context relates to the integration of lawfully residing nationals of third countries taking into consideration the cultural and historical ties of these communities with the member states. Migrants, or diasporas, from third countries are expected to integrate or return and potential migrants to stay in their countries as it has been defined by the Justice and Home Affairs (JHA) objectives. Lastly, the evolving principle of non-discrimination has been developed in various fields of Community law by prohibiting unequal treatment on racial grounds. The provisions concerning the prohibition of discrimination in Europe have been inserted in Article 13 of the EC Treaty. Due to recent developments, it has been gradually changed, as the Charter of Fundamental Rights may extend the ban on discrimination, (Art. 21 of the Charter), on the basis of membership of a national minority, regardless to citizenship. Moreover, the Tampere Council Conclusions have declared the aim to increase the efforts on social, economic and family integration of diasporas or ethnic minorities residing legally on (the) EU territory regardless of nationality