Minority Rights,Multiculturalism and EU Enlargement: the Case of Estonia*
Publisher: Journal on Ethnopolitics and Minority Issues in Europe Volume: 35 pages, pdf Description: This article examines the process of EU enlargement and its impact upon ethnopolitics in contemporary Estonia. After discussing the construction of the post -communist state order within the context of emerging CSCE and CoE norms on minority rights, the author looks at how Estonia was able to reconcile its so -called ‘ethnic democracy’ with the EU Copenhagen criteria requiring the ‘respect for and protection of minorities’. The author draws attention to the subsequent shift away from ‘nationalizing statehood’ in Estonia towards a new strategy of ‘multicultural integration’ (where ‘multicultural democracy’ is portrayed as the ideal end-point of the integrative processes currently underway).