The Promotion of Respect for Human Rights as an Objective of the EU Foreign Policy toward Macedonia in the period 1995-1999

Abstract

Since several decades, the EU declared that the promotion of respect for human rights
is among the objectives of its foreign policy, although the formulation of the policy dedicated to
the realization of this objective rose a considerable controversy. In the present paper, we
concentrate on the analysis of the promotion of respect for human rights in the EU relations with
Macedonia during the second half of the 1990s’, in the framework of its first coherent policy
toward the region of Western Balkans, named the ‘’Regional approach’’. The paper analyses the
key political documents and legal instruments adopted by the EU Institutions which define the
political dialogue, the conditionality framework and the evaluation of its fulfilment. The findings
contribute to the better understanding of the general profile of the EU foreign policy in the field,
in particular considering the importance given to the promotion of respect for human rights in the
context of the current EU policy (‘’Stabilization and Association Process’’) toward the states
from the region, including Macedonia.