Abstract
Following a brief discussion concerning the concept ‘minority’, this article analyses certain trends that can be gleaned from the supervision of minority specific instruments (or provisions) as well as the gradual development of a minority protection paradigm within the EU. The supervisory system of the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities (FCNM) will receive most attention, because it has developed the most extensive and most detailed body of relevant opinions concerning minority rights. Furthermore, it reveals remarkable developments regarding minority protection, through rather extensive and demanding interpretations of the ensuing State obligations which significantly reduce the at first sight almost boundless State discretion. At the same time, it seems important to discuss the latest views of the Human Rights Committee (HRC) concerning minority protection issues, some of which have elicited divergent interpretations among academics. While it would be far fetched to qualify developments regarding minority protection in the EU under the heading of ‘minority specific instruments’, they surely deserve attention. Arguably, the minority protection rhetoric is gradually expanding to the internal policy domain, which is reflected in the explicit recognition in the recently adopted Constitution of respect for minority rights as a foundational value of the EC. The final part of this article analyses the repercussions of the accession dynamic, with its attention for minority protection in the candidate countries, for both direct and more indirect channels of ‘minority protection’ within the EU.