basic treaties and bilateral minority treaties
The bilateral treaties – officially known as treaties on good neighbourly relations, friendship and cooperation – established between European states in the second half of the twentieth century, particularly in the 1990s, are also known as ‘basic treaties’. These treaties regulate a number of issues (e.g. borders, infrastructure, economy and culture), among which specific treaty provisions on the rights of national minorities living in countries of one another should be highlighted. Particularly significant was the 1991 German–Polish Basic Treaty, which settled the border issue and minority rights between Germany and Poland after German unification. In addition to the basic treaties, some states have also concluded separate treaties on the protection of minorities. It is typical of these treaties that they also refer to existing international standards of minority rights of the UN, OSCE and the Council of Europe as binding commitments for the parties. The treaties between Hungary and its neighbours enshrine the inviolability of borders and the rights of minorities under international standards. The Hungarian government concluded a basic treaty and adopted a joint declaration on the protection of minorities with Ukraine in 1991, a basic treaty and a treaty on minorities with Slovenia in 1992, a basic treaty and a treaty on minorities with Croatia in 1992 and 1995, a basic treaty with Slovakia in 1995 and Romania in 1996, and a treaty on minorities with Serbia in 2003. Joint committees on minorities have been set up under the basic treaties or minority treaties to deal with issues relating to the protection of minorities, which in principle meet regularly and make recommendations incorporated in protocols. Protocols adopted in some countries become part of domestic law by way of government decrees. The joint committees are chaired by a co-chair from each of the two countries and are made up of designated staff from the countries’ government administrations and representatives of national minorities. In the case of Hungary, Slovakia, and Romania, the joint committee on minorities was established by the basic treaty, while in the other relations (Ukraine, Slovenia, Croatia and Serbia) the committees were established on the basis of a separate treaty or declaration on the protection of minorities. However, the functioning of the joint committees on minorities is far from being consistent, since protocols can be adopted only by consensus and progress typically made only on issues of a minor weight. Regular meetings are sometimes delayed for years because of reluctance of one of the parties, and major disputes cannot be settled by governments in the framework of the joint committees. At the same time, an important result of the functioning of the committees is that minority representatives can also make their voices heard in intergovernmental consultations concerning minority issues.