Memorandum submitted by HE Mr Grigory
B Karasin, Ambassador of the Russian Federation
Article 2 of the 1994 Russia-EU Partnership
and Cooperation Agreement (PCA) contains a provision for the Parties'
commitment to democratic principles and human rights as defined
in the Helsinki Final Act and the Charter of Paris for a New Europe.
One has to ascertain that not all countries that are joining the
EU fully meet these criteria. For example, a number of documents
and reports of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe,
the Council of Europe Advisory Committee of the Framework Convention
for the Protection of National Minorities, European Commission
against Racism and Intolerance, United Nations Commissions for
human rights, the elimination of racial discrimination, the prevention
of torture, economic, social and cultural rights, the OSCE Office
for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights, as well as assessments
made by the OSCE High Commissioner Minorities Rolf Ekeus and the
Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights Alvaro Gil-Robles
testify to the remaining problems in Latvia and Estonia in the
field of the protection of human rights and national minorities,
such as a high number of stateless persons, lack of guarantees
of a proper education in one's native language and its use in
the areas of compact residence of the Russian-speaking minority,
etc.
The following steps from the Latvian and Estonian
authorities could facilitate rectifying the lack of conformity
with Russia-EU PCA criteria:
— Joining the fundamental European
human rights conventions, first of all the Framework Convention
for the Protection of National Minorities (Latvia has signed it
but has not ratified it, Estonia has ratified it with the reservation
that it was not applicable to non-citizens) and the European Charter
for Regional or Minorities Languages (not signed either by Latvia
nor Estonia).
— Implementing a dramatic change in
the approaches towards naturalisation in order to secure the possibility
for the predominant part of the Russian-speaking minority to participate
in democratic processes (replacing the language examination that
is part of the naturalisation procedure with state-financed national
language courses, abolishing history/civic studies examination
due to its excessive political orientation, introducing a simplified
naturalisation procedure for the elderly, granting former Russian
military servicemen and members of their families the right to
citizenship), the removal of other political restrictions on naturalisation.
— Revising the legislation in order
to guarantee the conservation of a state system of secondary education
in the Russian language, as well as the relevant changes in the
plans for a school reform affecting both the reform itself and
its time-frame.
— Rendering it possible to use the
Russian language at official level in areas of compact residence
of the Russian-speaking minority.
— Creating conditions for the effective
participation of the Russian-speaking minority in a dialogue with
authorities on issues of policy regarding national minorities.
The above-mentioned measures would bring the
situation on the protection of national minorities in Latvia and
Estonia closet to those standards that already exist in most European
countries and, with EU assistance, are being implemented in respect
of minority rights in Macedonia (Ochrid agreement) and Slovakia.
Steps in this direction taken by the Government of Lithuania are
evaluated positively.
It is expected that once Latvia and Estonia
join the European Union, persons with a "non-citizen"
status will be granted the rights to work and he freedom to travel
within the EU territory equal to those enjoyed by Latvian and
Estonian citizens.
Clearly, the overall solution of the outlined
problems will require time. Nevertheless, given the active EU
position it is possible to secure real progress in these directions
already in the next few months so that such positive dynamics
could progress before the official entry of Latvia and Estonia
to the European Union. In the future, as it is stipulated in Article
6 of the PCA, Russia and the EU could cooperate on matters pertaining
to the observance of human rights and rights of national minorities
in Latvia and Estonia with the aim of encouraging the authorities
of these countries to bring the real state of affairs in this
field into full compliance with the obligations of the PCA and
other known international standards.
Ambassador of the Russian Federation
January 2004
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