From Securitisation to Weaponisation: EU Enlargement and the Geopolitics of Ethnic Minorities and Minority rights

In 1993, the Copenhagen European Council established the “stability of institutions guaranteeing democracy, the rule of law, human rights and respect for and protection of minorities” as one of three conditions applicant countries to the then European Community (today’s European Union) had to fulfil before their accession to the bloc. This made sense at a time when talk of the end of history and the beginning of a new world order was rife, while notions of ancient hatreds and an impending clash of civilisations were widely derided. Minority issues were recognised as potentially destabilising of states and inter-state relations, but mostly as a result of states failing to protect the rights of the minority communities living within their borders. Three decades later, minority issues are no longer simply securitised but they have become increasingly weaponised in a much more volatile security environment marked by the return of form of great power politics that is increasingly less constrained by international rules and norms. Against this background, the paper examines the extent to which the different dimensions of the Copenhagen criteria are mutually compatible, whether they still are (or can be) applied and in what order of priority, and how the EU can strike a balance between protecting minorities and minority rights inside and outside the Union while not allowing them to be weaponised against the Union and the enlargement process.