On June 15, 2022, the Council of Europe Advisory Committee on the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities published its Fifth Opinion on the Slovak Republic. The report criticizes Slovakia, among others, for the discrimination of the Hungarian national minority, and...
A two-faced accession policy will not save Ukraine, nor will it serve the interests of the European Union.Ukraine’s situation is sui generis. No other country has ever applied for European Union membership from a comparable situation. Harsh as it sounds, the E.U. is not a charity organization....
Russia’s invasion presents an opportunity for the United States to reduce its economic exposure to China before it’s too late. The terrible war that is raging at NATO’s eastern gates for the sovereign state of Ukraine has shed light on what could happen when countries develop a high degree of...
Turning a blind eye to further reforms degrades the UN Charter to a piece of paper.Russia’s war in Ukraine appears to be throwing the United Nations a lifeline. Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy told the U.N. Security Council to expel Russia or dissolve itself. Blunt. No doubt, he stirred up...
Foggy Bottom’s latest report on human rights abuses in Slovakia omits worrisome realities.
On April 12, the State Department published its annual human rights country reports. While certain countries and issues are being strictly scrutinized, serious human rights violations in the heart of Europe are consistently ignored. This goes against America’s own interests and undermines transatlantic unity at a critical time.
The inside story of the Budapest Memorandum of 1994, when Kyiv returned its nuclear weapons to Russia in return for ‘assurances’ from Moscow and Washington.Immediately after Ukraine signed its final agreement to renounce nuclear weapons in 1994, the country’s first president, Leonid Kravchuk,...
The country’s retroactive application of a World War II-era law disenfranchises people with German and Hungarian ancestry.
In the current “rule of law” climate, a book such as the one reviewed hereunder might provide us with some much needed guidance in our arguments over what the concept of constitutionalism is and what it really means in terms of the rule of law. In his 2019 book titled “Revolutionary Constitutions:...
RealClear Defense By Michael van Ginkel & Balázs Tárnok The Belarus-Polish border crisis shows us that the situation on the Eastern frontier of Europe is escalating once again. To enhance resilience against Russian influence campaigns, Eastern and Central European countries should stick...
Lilla Nóra Kiss, Aida Bektasheva, Balázs Szabó: Eurasian Economic Union: in the European Union's footsteps or on new paths?Abstract: The European and Eurasian integration forms are genuinely unique, with legislative, executive, and judicial powers at the supranational level. The comparative...
The EU Commission recently launched infringement procedures against both Hungary and Poland for the alleged violations of LGBTQ+ rights. While Brussels is standing up for the rights of LGBTQ+ people, it keeps ignoring the challenges other minorities face, specifically ethnic minorities. Not...
The Washington Times In July, President Biden will meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in the White House to reaffirm the United States’ support for Ukraine’s NATO membership aspirations. While in the U.S., there’s bipartisan support for Ukraine’s NATO accession, the war-torn...
Newsweek Ukraine will be on the agenda when President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin meet in Switzerland this week. Ukraine's security got a boost last month when U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinkenreaffirmed America's unwavering support for Kyiv's sovereignty. But...
ICONnect - Blog of the International Journal of Contitutional Law In 2017, the Ukrainian Parliament (Verkhovna Rada) adopted a new Law on Education which limits the right of ethnic minorities to be educated in their native language after the fourth grade. In 2019, the Parliament adopted the...
Ludovika Josep Borrell, EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Olivér Várhelyi, Commissioner for Neighborhood and Enlargement confirmed in a letter sent to MEP Andrea Bocskor that the Union is committed to monitoring the respect of human rights, including minority...
Do we, ‘the People of Europe’ have a common lifestyle that establishes a bridge across us while respects our diversity? Is it possible to define a European Way of Life that is based on the diversity of values as a supranational incentive incorporating our differences while connects us? The last...
Péter Varga – Balázs Tárnok: European Citizens’ Initiatives for the Protection of National Minorities Abstract: The European Citizens’ Initiative entered into force in 2012 as a new instrument of participatory democracy in the EU. It was inspired by national constitutional developments, and it was...