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Expanded accession conditionality : the European Union’s leverage on refugee return to Croatia

Respect for and protection of minorities that were made part of the EU Copenhagen accession criteria adopted in 1993 remain binding criteria for all countries aspiring for EU membership now or in the future, including the present Western Balkans (potential) candidates. This paper argues that an expanded element of the minority criterion, namely, the necessity to allow for return of refugees, has been attached to the pre-accession minority-criterion in Croatia and several other (potential) Western Balkans candidates. Accordingly, by insisting upon refugee return and adequate responses to the manifold consequences of the inter-ethnic conflicts of the 1990s, the EU contributes not only to a proper accommodation of relevant issues concerning national minorities and their protection/promotion in Croatia, but also to sustainable peace in the entire region, and beyond. This expanded, novel element of conditionality speaks in favour of the EU as a motivator of domestic changes in the sphere of fundamental rights. Subsequently, the paper provides an outlook of requirements Croatia has been faced with in the field of refuge return in the course of the EU accession process, arguing that without the EU’s strict and coherent conditionality on refugee return, the – already limited – success of refugee return would have been even much poorer.

respect for and protection of minorities, national minorities, Croatia, refugee return, Sarajevo Declaration, Western Balkans, EU integration, soft acquis

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