Lost in Transition: Russian-speaking non-citizens in Latvia and the protection of minority rights in the European Union

This article analyses whether the European Union needs to introduce a legal framework to protect the rights of national minorities in its Member States. It examines this issue through a case study of Latvia's treatment of its Russian-speaking minorities before and after accession to the European Union. In Latvia, due to its exclusionary citizenship policies, many of the Russian-speaking minorities are non-citizens, and, hence, are subject to differential treatment under both domestic legislation and EU law. The accession process to the European Union has not resolved this issue, largely because the European Union lacked consistent and uniform standards on minority protection. Four years post-accession, it appears that existing EU rules and Council of Europe instruments, such as the European Convention on Human Rights and the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities (FCNM), are not sufficiently effective to remedy Latvia's exclusionary practices against Russian-speaking non-citizens. Based on this analysis, it is argued that as the European Union enlarges further, there is a need for consistent and uniform standards of internal and external protection of minority rights. One solution proposed is for the European Union to accede to the FCNM. Arguably, convergence of EU enforcement mechanisms with the FCNM rules on minority protection could help the European Union to ensure consistency of standards in the accession process, as well as resolve remaining issues of minorities post-accession.