Soft pressure of the EU helps minorities

Roughly one thousand people took part in a Gay Pride parade in Belgrade on Sunday, which was authorised following pressure from the EU. Five thousand police officers protected the demonstrators from roughly ten thousand counter-demonstrators. When the latter rioted and attacked, the police responded with tear gas. That the parade went ahead at all shows how much pressure the EU can exert, writes the left-liberal daily The Independent: "The lesson from all this is clear. When Europe chooses to deploy that combination of diplomatic and financial levers known as 'soft power', it can change the way that the governments of would-be member countries treat often highly unpopular minorities. What Europe needs to do now is apply those same levers with regards to other minority communities in the region, starting with the Roma and the mentally and physically handicapped. ... Europe failed all three of these groups when, for political reasons, it allowed the admission of Romania and Bulgaria into the club in 2005 - a decision that almost everyone in Brussels now recognises was premature. ... As the Belgrade march showed, it is only when Europe is vigilant that official attitudes even start to shift in the right direction."

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