The right of the Muslim minority of Western Thrace to receive education in the mother tongue is provided by the Treaty of Lausanne and the educational bilateral agreements-the Educational Agreement (1951) and the Cultural Protocol (1968)-signed between Greece and Turkey. Due to certain particularities in the educational system, however, minority students do not have adequate opportunities to gain knowledge of the Greek or Turkish language. The major problems the Muslim minority faces in education include: a mixed system of administration, outdated textbooks, poorly-educated teaching staff and the absence of an efficient school curriculum. This article will provide a critical analysis of the existing legislation on education provided to Muslim students in the minority schools of Western Thrace. Secondly, an examination will be made of the level and status of minority education in light of current international human rights treaties documents for the protection of minorities. The existing inadequacies of the educational system will be addressed to provide a series of effective solutions and recommendations in favour of the advancement and improvement of education in minority schools. The article will therefore examine the principle that education needs to be made available and accessible at all levels to the member of a minority group and, most importantly, it needs to adapt to the socio-linguistic and cultural needs of minority students.

Greece --- Western Thrace --- Muslim minority --- education --- problems --- legislation

This article explores key policy developments regarding ethnic minority protection and anti-discrimination in contemporary Poland. More specifically, it examines the relationship between domestic policy formation and the European context. Before 2004, the European Union applied membership conditionality in order to attempt to stimulate candidate member states in post-communist Central Europe to adopt special minority protection measures. As a result, most of these countries turned to the official recognition of the ethnic specificity of minority groups and the acceptance of group-related cultural entitlements, not only as norms in their own right but also as the basis for a policy of stimulating ethnocultural diversity in the new member states have been less focused on group-related rights but have emphasized the themes of social inclusion, anti-discrimination and equal opportunities. I explore how, in this new European context, Polish policies on ethnic minority protection have developed. Through a comparison of dominant Polish perceptions of minority protection issues with dominant discourses about the preservation of ethnic diversity promoted by EU institutions, this article shows the linkages between recent developments in Polish minority policy-making and the current European initiatives in this field. It also shows important points of disjuncture between the way in which European institutions have framed issues of ethnocultural diversity and the way in which Polish policy-makers have worked out minority protection.

Poland --- minority protection --- European Union --- Enlargement --- anti-discrimination

The primary aim of this article is to place the current situation of Roms in the Western Balkans in the broader historical context of Roms' experiences since their arrival in the region. A subsidiary aim is to examine some of the ways in which the work of the European Centre for Minority Issues (ECMI) has taken steps to address this situation. beginning with a discussion of Roms' experiences in the Western Balkans from their arrival in the region through the post-communist period. Also offered is a brief examination of some of the difficulties encountered in measuring the size of Romani populations in the region. Presenting in more detail the situation of Roms in Macedonia, Montenegro, and Serbia, the article moves next to an examination of ECMI's novel approach to assessing Roms' needs and to the action-oriented follow-on initiatives designed on the basis of the needs assessments. The conclusion of the article is that lasting change in Roms' status is likely to depend in large part on the integration of the countries of the Western Balkans into the European Union.

Roms --- Romani populations --- status --- Western Balkans --- Macedonia --- Montenegro --- Serbia --- needs assessments --- initiatives

The aim of this study is to investigate the causes and effects of economic exclusion of historical national and ethnic minorities and to identify the policies, both at the national and supranational levels, that are most effective in combating this problem. The study analyzes economic participation in four regions of Europe in which historical minorities are concentrated: the Autonomous Province of South Tyrol/Bolzano (where German-speakers form a majority), Northern Ireland (where Catholics form a large majority), Estonia (where Russians and other Russian-speakers form a majority in the northeastern county of Ida-Viru) and Transylvania in Romania (where Hungarians form a majority in two counties). The main focus is on compactly settled minorities, rather than widely dispersed minorities such as Roma. The paper (Section II) shows how a variety of factors, including constitutional arrangements and other fundamental laws, policies from different fields of policy making, general economic processes, such as privatization or integration into the global marketplace, as well as the strategies adopted by the minorities themselves, affect the relative economic position of members of minorities in the four regions under analysis. This allows us to derive examples of best practice in terms of policy initiatives that can best combat the problem of economic exclusion. The paper concludes by summarizing the policies that are most effective in promoting economic inclusion in our case studies and the ways that these may be employed at a wider EU level.

National minorities --- economic status --- South Tyrol --- Northern Ireland --- Estonia --- Transylvania --- comparison --- best practice