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Reasons for EU double standards: comparative overview of the cases of the Erased and the Non-citizens

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 November 2018

Sanja Vrbek
Sanja Vrbek*
Affiliation:
Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Ljubljana, Kardeljeva pl. 5, Ljubljana 1000, Slovenia
*
*Email: vrbek.sanja@gmail.com
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Abstract

On the basis of a comparative analysis of the case studies of the Slovenian Erased and the Latvian Non-citizens, the paper endeavors to identify the reasons for the EU involvement in the latter, but not the former case. These two situations are recognized as similar enough to be compared, and endure the counter-argumentation that the different EU approach is conditioned by the specifics of the local context, not by double standards. Hence, the paper comes to a conclusion that the involvement in Latvia has been conditioned by the fear of the potentially violent conflict, the existence of a proactive kin state, and a minority, significant in number, as well as the explicitly discriminatory legal framework that was in collision with the EU economic acquis. Thus, it has been inferred that double standards occur due to the lack of EU and international interest in these situations of human rights violations, where the powerful kin state and the minority, significant in number, are absent, do not have a potential to develop into a violent conflict, do not derive from explicitly discriminatory legal provision, and do not challenge the fundamental market freedoms of the EU.

Keywords

double standardsEuropeanizationCEE enlargementLatvian Non-citizensthe ErasedSlovenia
Type
Articles
Information
Nationalities Papers , Volume 43 , Issue 2 , March 2015 , pp. 302 - 318
Copyright
Copyright © 2015 Association for the Study of Nationalities 

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