Big Wave
Big Wave

Summary/Abstract: This work presents the state of human rights in the countries of the Big Wave, i.e., the ten newest members of the European Union. As the space was restricted, it covers mainly areas of minority rights, education, language policy, media rights and the right to political organising and representation. The overview of the situation was widely known at the time of accession but many issues had been ignored. There is only one new member state that really did not have these issues and it was the smallest one. The rest were given credits for improvements despite the fact that some other countries at the time were criticised for similar policies towards their minorities. Therefore this work presents possibilities for future waves of new members whether to incorporate their minorities fully into their societies or simply do with minor cosmetic changes. The argument in this work is that it is unlikely though that the European Union would ever again allow new states to become part of the Union with many human rights issues being on the borderline of successfully solved and unsolved. The argument in favour of ignoring certain aspects is that the state of human rights has significantly improved in the countries of the Big Wave.

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