The European Union has set specific political and economic criteria that should be fulfilled by states applying for membership. The political Copenhagen criteria include protection of minorities as a factor of the implementation of democracy in the applying state and indirectly also the minority school system as the main instrument of minority protection. Hungary, Poland and Slovakia have chosen different strategies of dealing with minority issues and especially with the minority school system. Both the Republic of Hungary and the Republic of Poland have made their first steps towards the desired level of minority protection, although each of them chose her own path which satisfies the different ethnical structure of the two states. On the other hand, the Republic of Slovakia seems to have abandoned the path of an acceptable level of minority protection and focused on strengthening the national state. Therefore the Republic of Slovakia does not fulfil the political criteria for the accession in the EU.
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