The citizenship policies of the Baltic States: Do they conform to the European framework?

The purpose of this thesis is to evaluate whether or not the citizenship policies of the Baltic states conform to the European Union framework. The Baltic states within this context are Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. The citizenship policies that are of concern here are those that have affected the Russian-speaking minority living in the Baltic states. These citizenship policies are evaluated within the framework of EU?s liberal democratic tradition and its membership criteria. Prior to the evaluation of these citizenship policies; this thesis provides definitions for the relevant terms, an account of Baltic history, and also an account of the citizenship policies. These are provided to give a historical and theoretical context to the evaluation of the citizenship policies. This thesis concludes that Lithuania?s citizenship policy conforms, while Estonia?s and Latvia?s citizenship policies do not conform to the European framework. This evaluation is based on the fact that Estonia?s and Latvia?s citizenship policies have created a situation in which Russian-speaking minority have difficulty acquiring citizenship, and thus have resulted in a democratic shortcoming that is against EU?s liberal democratic tradition and its membership criteria. Lithuania?s citizenship policy has created no such problem, and is therefore in conformity with the European framework. This thesis? conclusion leads to a further conclusion: the EU, based on its notion of European kinship, behaves differently towards different EU candidates. Therefore this thesis concludes that, in terms of EU?s behavior with regards enlargement, what are written down as rules are not always adhered to in practice.