Treaties of Accession to the European Union
The protection of minorities as a political condition for EU membership is only exceptionally included in accession treaties. Protocol 2 to the 1994 Treaty of Accession of Austria, Finland, Sweden and Norway laid down the restrictions linked to regional citizenship for people living in the Åland Islands, and Protocol 3 detailed the privileges of the Sámi living in Finland, Norway and Sweden with regard to reindeer husbandry. Both protocols recognised these exceptions and the limitation of the application of EU law in these matters by referring to the internal law and international legal commitments of the acceding states concerned. In the accession process the European Commission leads the negotiations with the candidate country on the adoption of EU law and political conditions. Since 2006 the protection of human rights and minority rights has become part of the negotiating chapters (chapter 23) and these political conditions have also been more prominent in the accession of the Western Balkan countries. In 2013 Croatia made a specific commitment in Annex VII of its accession treaty to strengthen the protection of minorities and to implement the Minorities Act more effectively.