CVEK

Treaty of Lisbon, amending the Treaty on European Union and the Treaty Establishing the European Community, in its article 2.3, declares that the EU “shall respect its reach cultural and linguistic diversity, and shall ensure that Europe‟s cultural heritage is safeguarded and enhanced”. One of the main purposes of this conference is to explore how this provision can be utilized to promote respect of minority rights and minority cultures during the Hungarian presidency over the EU. Given the non existence of specific minority rights guarantees in the EU law, this statement can be rightly seen as a long awaited positive development. The value of cultural diversity also provides a pragmatic avenue how to defend minority rights. The purpose of my contribution is to step back and discuss some of the limitation of this approach, which has been in some cases employed by the United Nations and the Council of Europe.

download: Lajcakova_Heritage_for_the_Future