Research Papers

The Copenhagen European Council of 1993 incorporated minority protection into the discursive 'idea of Europe'. Previous studies professed this development as an evidence of the normative aspect of EU identity. However, the variation between the EU policy objectives for the protection of minorities and the policy outcomes in the context of EU enlargement has largely unsubstantiated these arguments. Coming from an English School of International Relations theoretical framework, this paper instead suggests that minority protection policies which are designed and delivered with Eastern European countries in mind have acted as a mechanism to include or exclude countries on the basis of their perceived proximity to an underlying understanding of 'Europe'. To test the empirical validity of this explanatory model, the paper utilises a computer assisted data analysis software, Alceste to statistically analyse the EU Commission's annual reports for two applicant states; Turkey and Croatia. Relatively smooth progression of Croatia’s accession process in comparison to EU’s more distant approach to Turkey presents an excellent contrast to initially explore and later define the gap between the EU objectives and policy outcomes in this public policy area. The aim of analysis the relationship between the EU treatment of minority issues Perhaps more significantly, it is expected to examine if and to what extent EU's differentiated and selective treatment of minority issues in the context of enlargement can be linked to its degree of ideational and/or identitarian affiliation with applicant states.