EU-Membership &amp; human rights: a match made in Brussels?: About the influence of EU-Membership on human rights in CEE countries of the 2004-2007 enlargement wave

2004 was the year in which the European Union (EU) underwent its most extensive enlargement thus far, as ten former Soviet Union (SU) countries joined the EU. Within the SU, human rights were only recognized for groups, which deviates from the Western perspective. This led to a strict pre-accession conditionality regarding the areas of democracy, rule of law and human rights. The objective of this thesis is to identify and explain the compliance regarding human rights in these countries during the post-accession years, subsequent to the period of strict conditionality. This will be achieved through a comparative analysis of human rights indices from the CEE countries that joined during 2004-2007 enlargement wave from 1985 to 2016. Additionally, a case study will be employed to further investigate the topic. The findings indicate that those countries did not solely improve their human rights situation just to meet the EU-requirements for admission, and subsequently lost motivation to...Show more2004 was the year in which the European Union (EU) underwent its most extensive enlargement thus far, as ten former Soviet Union (SU) countries joined the EU. Within the SU, human rights were only recognized for groups, which deviates from the Western perspective. This led to a strict pre-accession conditionality regarding the areas of democracy, rule of law and human rights. The objective of this thesis is to identify and explain the compliance regarding human rights in these countries during the post-accession years, subsequent to the period of strict conditionality. This will be achieved through a comparative analysis of human rights indices from the CEE countries that joined during 2004-2007 enlargement wave from 1985 to 2016. Additionally, a case study will be employed to further investigate the topic. The findings indicate that those countries did not solely improve their human rights situation just to meet the EU-requirements for admission, and subsequently lost motivation to sustain these improvements after joining the EU. The countries changed their institutions and norms and are motivated by a desire to affirm their identities as members of a society, which results in the improvement of human rights. Based on the results of the analysis it could be stated that EU-Membership has a bigger influence on a countries’ human rights than domestic factors.Show less

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EU-Membership & human rights: a match made in Brussels? About the influence of EU-Membership on human rights in CEE countries of the 2004-2007 enlargement wave