Complying with European Standards of Minority Protection

This thesis investigates the contribution of the EU, OSCE andCOE to the evolution of Estonian minority policy from 1991 to 2000.After an initial phase of attempting to exclude Russian-speakersfrom society, the Estonian government began to encourage theirintegration, first on the basis of cultural assimilation and thenon the basis of multiculturalism. All three European regionalorganizations sought to ensure Estonian compliance with Europeanstandards of minority protection. However, each relied on differentmechanisms to achieve this end. The EU relied mostly onconditionality, the linking of economic assistance and politicalopportunities to Estonian compliance; the OSCE relied on a securitydialogue, the attempt to persuade Estonian decision-makers thatguaranteeing minority protection would advance the security oftheir state; the COE made use of a moral dialogue, the effort totransmit new expectations about appropriate behaviour to Estoniandecision-makers. By attempting to determine the respectiveinfluence of each organization, the thesis has implications for IRtheoretical debates about compliance and for the practice of theEuropean minority rights regime.