MINORITY PROTECTION AND THE EUROPEAN UNION

The most recent EURAC project focusing on the relationship between the European integration process and the protection of minorities is a project aiming at the establishment of a Platform for an enriching culturally and ethnically diverse Europe (PECEDE). PECEDE is cofunded by EURAC, the European Commission and the Open Society Institute (OSI). It complements the various activities undertaken by EURAC in this field so far and enriches those fields of our work which focus on the EU value of diversity in a wider sense including not only the protection of minorities but also the preservation and promotion of linguistic and cultural diversity in general. PECEDE is and has been involved in five main areas: the organisation of a high level conference in Bolzano/Bozen on 30 and 31 January 2004 convening over 90 NGO representatives, politicians and experts the strengthening of a network of NGOs and experts (drawing on the COMIR network) the proposal of package of policy-relevant measures to the EU in the "BOLZANO/BOZEN DECLARATION on the protection of minorities in the enlarged European Union" the forthcoming publication of the January 2004 Bolzano/Bozen conference proceedings. The book "Minority protection and the enlarged European Union. The way forward" (LGI books, Budapest/New York) contains a set of high level academic analyses of the legal and political issues at stake the compilation of a collection of legal sources dealing with the preservation of cultural and ethnic diversity within the EU framework and of a bibliography of relevant literature in the area of EU-law and -politics.

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