Together in..2057! Blog

Consolidate democracy in Eastern Europe (submitted by JEF-DK)

- Resolution for the 2007 JEF-congress

It has been 3 years since 15 new member states joined the EU. Their accession was conditional on compliance with the Copenhagen criteria. One of the sections was political criteria (democracy, rule of law, human rights, respect and protection of minorities). Those countries, which could not comply with the criteria, have to wait some years to join the EU.

One could observe that Eastern European countries were willing to consolidate the democracy before 2004. EU helped as well financially by supporting the NGO sector and so on.

But what happens now three years later? Is there democracy, rule of law, human rights, respect and protection of minorities in the Eastern European countries? Do their governments respect the Copenhagen criteria?

JEF-Europe supports the democracy both on the EU level and on the national level. But we can see that there are not any sanctions for the new Eastern member states, which do not fallow the Copenhagen criteria now. There is still corruption and minority rights continue to be violated. JEF-Europe is particularly concerned about the deteriorating state of the rights of minority groups such as Russians and sexual minorities. Another area of great concern is the transparency in the public sector and the management of public funds.

Therefore JEF-Europe urges the European Parliament and the European Commission to strengthen the democracy in Eastern Europe and if the Copenhagen criteria are not followed, to apply sanctions.