Europeanization of Minority Protection Policies in Latvia: EU Conditionality and the Impact of Domestic Factors on the Rights of Ethnic Russians

Abstract

This article assesses the impact of Europeanization on the minority protection policies in Latvia. The diffusion of European norms into European Union and the declaration of the Copenhagen Criteria in 1993 marked the respect for minority rights as a condition for EU membership which is defined as part of the “acquiscommunitaire” of the European Union. In this paper, I ask “which domestic factors lead to the Europeanization of minority policies” to analyze the impact of Europeanization on the minority policies in Latvia. Utilizing the data from European Union official documents and reports from the year of official candidacy to accession, I explore the influence of “the position governments” and the “veto players” on the Europeanization process of minority protection rights in Latvia.