Minorities (…) the European Union: is the missing link an ‘of’ or a ‘within’?

Article is part of a special issue on minority rights in an expanding EU.
Article abstract:

This article examines whether there exists a genuine link between different sorts of 'minorities' and the European Union which would legitimise to talk of minorities 'of' rather than merely 'within' the European Union. The author examines the cases of the Member States themselves, EU migrant workers, third country nationals and traditional minorities within the Member States. Whereas migrant workers and the Member States hardly constitute plausibly such 'Community minorities', third country nationals do. Regarding the traditional minorities the author doubts that the Union will ever assume a full fledged competence in this field which would establish a direct link between the minorities and the Union bypassing thereby the national level. He even portrays such a developing policy in the field of minority protection. In the conclusions the author hints to some possible developments in this direction.