Europe as a Mosaic of Identities - Nexus of National Minorities and European Values

Europe as a Mosaic of Identities

Nexus of National Minorities and European Values

Réka Brigitta Szaniszló

International relations expert, PhD student, University of Szeged Faculty of Law and Political Sciences

The primary aim of the study is to highlight the main problems facing national minorities in Europe. To this end, it examines whether the respect for cultural diversity as stated in the Charter of Fundamental Rights also applies to European national minorities, which raises the question of whether national minorities in Europe are a European value. To answer this question, it is necessary to examine a number of concepts and conceptual relationships. For example, what is the historically evolved meaning of ‘value’, which is closely linked to people’s identity, leading to the issues of European and national identity. The protection of human rights is clearly a European value, which includes the right to live as a minority; however not only the concept of national minority, but also the concept of minority itself is not clear at a universal level. Although it can be said that the protection of national minorities is one of the European values, this fact raises more questions than it answers.