United through diversity
The European continent has a large and diverse population in terms of ethnocultural minorities. Racial and ethnic minorities account for around 10% of the population of the European Union states. In the Republic of Moldova, the minority population consisting of Ukrainians, Gagauzians, Bulgarians, Roma and other ethnicities constitutes 14.9% of the entire population.
The European Union stands out for a fairly rich legislative framework in terms of the protection of national minorities. The Union also functions on the basis of cooperation with other international organizations, with the role of monitoring and supervising the level of respect for the rights of the population that forms the ethnic minority groups in each state. That diversity is one of the priorities of the European Union, and without it, the coexistence of different nationalities between the 27 states in a single union would be impossible. This position is strengthened by the EU’s official motto “United through diversity” which highlights the position towards minorities: the national and cultural identity of each individual must be cultivated, promoted and valued.
Ethnic minorities underpin the values of the European Union, which are stipulated in the founding Treaty of the European Union. Despite the fact that this supra-state entity started out of the need to create a single economic market, it was already clear in 1992 that greater attention needs to be paid to the EU’s common values. Thus, the Maastricht Treaty of 1992 states that “the EU is founded on the values of respect for human dignity, freedom, democracy, equality, the rule of law and respect for human rights, including the rights of persons belonging to ethnic minorities. These values are common to the EU Member States in a society in which pluralism, non-discrimination, tolerance, justice, solidarity and equality between women and men prevail.”
The European Union treats the protection of ethnic minorities inseparably from human rights. That is why the rights of minorities are best exercised and granted only in a system based on human rights, democracy and the rule of law, such as democratic states. The European Union as a whole is a union of democratic values. This is also reflected in the fact that at least 7 of the EU states (including Italy, Spain, Finland, France, the Netherlands) have autonomous regions or territories with a particular type of self-government – be it cultural, political, economic etc.
The European values are in favor of ethnic minorities in the Republic of Moldova.
Peace, national identity, minority rights – basic principles in the EU
Looking through this angle, ethnic minorities in the Republic of Moldova should be the most vocal and active group in favor of the country’s integration into the EU. Why?
(I) The European Union not only designates peace as the fundamental basis of the Union, an aspect supported by the majority of ethnic minorities in the Republic of Moldova, but through its founding treaties itself, it ensures respect for cultural and linguistic diversity and the protection of cultural heritage.
For example, Article 3 of the Treaty on European Union explicitly states that the Union “shall combat social exclusion and discrimination, and shall promote social justice and protection, equality between women and men, solidarity between generations and the protection of the rights of the child”. Moreover, “the Union shall respect the equality of Member States before the Treaties, as well as their national identities, (…) inclusive of regional and local self-government”. The Union “shall respect its rich cultural and linguistic diversity, and shall ensure that Europe’s cultural heritage is safeguarded and enhanced”.
In other words, the fundamental idea through which the EU operates is that of preserving the specific identity of minorities and, thus, of cultivating cultural diversity. Moreover, it does not aim to alter in any way the national cultural traditions and those of minorities, but to transform these traditions into cultural heritage, not only at the level of the Republic of Moldova, but also at the international level.
Interestingly, the EU undertakes to respect the existing territorial autonomy in the EU Member States and to provide mechanisms through which the population of these autonomous units can increase their political and decision-making role at Union level.
In the context in which the minorities in the Republic of Moldova say that they feel discriminated against, that they are not sufficiently represented at the level of central public institutions and political decision-making, and the ethnic culture risks being lost in the pages of the country’s tumultuous history, due to the policy of Russification and to an independent state after 1990 that did not allocate the necessary resources for cultivating the identity richness of ethnic minorities, the European Union comes to offer national minorities both an international legislative framework, through which to promote their rights, but also resources for the consecration of cultural heritage.
For example, since 2000, the EU Race Equality Directive 2000/43/EC has prohibited any discrimination on grounds of racial or ethnic origins in accessing education, employment, public services, including housing, and social protection, and health-care.
(II) The EU is both an area of free movement and one that laus emphasis on regional development.
Unul dintre beneficiile cele mai căutate oferite de UE este libera circulație în statele din spațiul Schengen, prin atenuarea frontierelor de stat și crearea unui spațiu comun al UE.
Given that, in the Republic of Moldova, the intention of emigration of national minorities is quite high (except for the Gagauz and Ukrainians), the country’s integration into the EU offers the minorities in the Republic of Moldova a huge opportunity to connect and develop cross-border contacts specifically with their own communities, but also with other ethnic groups.
Open borders are essential for national minorities, for their culture, education, economy and because these communities often feel excluded and peripheral. Through cross-border cooperation, the ethnic minorities can learn from ethnic communities in the EU how to enhance their culture and how to take an active role at national and regional policy levels.
As a number of studies show, the European Union’s focus on regional development has contributed to the strengthening of the regions where national minorities live and even to their increased quality of life.
The Gagauz autonomous unit, for example, once Moldova is integrated into the EU, can borrow from the other EU autonomous entities advocacy tools and self-government lobbying. The Bulgarian community in Moldova can strengthen its cooperation with the mother state Bulgaria in order to attract more funds and investments in Taraclia region.
(III) The EU integration process for the Republic of Moldova is a window of opportunity for ethnic minorities to strengthen their position at national level.
As integration into the EU cannot be achieved without fulfilling the accession criteria (also called the Copenhagen criteria after the 1993 Copenhagen European Council, which defined them), the EU’s enlargement policy proved to be an essential instrument, which made a decisive contribution to improving the protection of minorities in the candidate countries. This is possible because one of the political criteria, which the Republic of Moldova and other candidate states must meet, explicitly aims at human rights and the protection of minorities by strengthening the institutions that guarantee the proper functioning of these rights and the rule of law.
Moldova’s integration into the EU, a political instrument in favor of ethnic minorities
The protection of ethnic minorities is not only one of the accession criteria that Moldova must meet, but also one of the main pillars of the EU’s enlargement policy. By setting standards and rules to be adopted and implemented by candidate countries, the EU became one of the institutions that actively develop and plead for minority rights.
Namely because the EU has a solid legislative framework, institutions that ensure that member states do not violate the rights of minorities and cooperate with international institutions to better monitor their rights, the EU currently represents one of the key destinations for migrants from non-EU states, as well as for many Moldovans, Ukrainians, Bulgarians and Russians.
Although the EU cannot intervene directly in the internal affairs of the member states and candidate states, these states must respect the fundamental EU treaties, which include, as we have seen, the protection of ethnic minorities.
In the context in which the Republic of Moldova in 2023 obtained the EU candidate status, the integration process itself for the national minorities in Moldova represents not only financial resources through which they can grow their regional economy and cultural projects, which can be promoted at European level, but also an important policy instrument to ensure that the rights, priorities and culture of these communities are not omitted or marginalized.
However, national minorities show a lack of interest in employing this important instrument – EU integration – which was made available to them by the EU in order to take advantage of the moment to expand their rights and increase their decision-making role in national politics.
The ethnic minorities in the Republic of Moldova, being mostly Russian-speaking, choose to show their loyalty to the Russian Federation, which is currently in an antagonistic position with the EU, rather than using this opportunity to strengthen their role inside the country. This becomes all the more essential when, as most ethnic minorities say, they feel first and foremost citizens of the Republic of Moldova and are proud to be Moldovan citizens.
The skepticism towards the EU, manifested by a part of the ethnic minorities in the Republic of Moldova, actually indicates that they either do not fully understand how the European Union works, or do not really care about their identity and culture. Because, although national minorities can also enjoy a certain level of protection in authoritarian systems, such as Russia (for example, in exchange for support for the regime), this has always proven to be a short-term, unstable and ultimately negative solution, affecting the language, traditions and customs of minorities. Although there are critics saying that the EU could do more to protect ethnic and racial minorities, there have been no cases of persecution of ethnic minorities in any EU state, as is the case in Turkey or China.
Thus, only a democratic legal order, in which there are international institutions that oversee the protection of human rights, is an essential prerequisite and a guarantee for the effective protection of ethnic minorities. In this regard, the accession of the Republic of Moldova to the EU and the EU values can only have positive effects on European minorities.
