Practical challenges and recommendations on the status of national minorities and indigenous peoples: a comparative analysis of the approaches of the European Union

Abstract

Modern models of social development emphasize the prevalence of positive examples of solving complex national and political problems aimed at finding peaceful ways to conduct dialogue and resolve existing conflicts or misunderstandings. The purpose of the article is to analyze the practical challenges and develop recommendations in defining the statute of national minorities and indigenous peoples in the European Union. The article is based on theoretical methods of analysis and synthesis, comparison, structural-functional and dialectical methods. The article analyzes the current problems of the existence of indigenous peoples in the EU countries, the legal rules governing the mechanism for the realization of the rights of national minorities. The author identifies the main challenges that arise in the process of legal regulation of ethnonational policy in the EU. Among them, in particular, the author identifies the politicization of the issue of national minorities and the denial of their existence. Similarly, the political factor is relevant for the legalization of indigenous peoples, which leads to the weak development of legal instruments. It is proposed to use international UN documents to formulate national legislation, to demand legal prosecution of any manifestations of discrimination at the public level, and to develop a legal framework for terminological aspects of definitions. The conclusions emphasize the importance for the EU candidate states (including Ukraine) to pay leading attention to the problem of indigenous peoples and national minorities.