Legal Analysis of the Investment Framework of Cohesion Policy in the Function of Positive Discrimination of National Minorities in the Republic of Croatia: Perspectives of the Previous and Next Ten Years

Providing an effective socio-normative framework equipped to exhaustively address, safeguard, and advance the rights of national minorities is deeply embedded into the multicultural landscape of contemporary democracies. The modes of assistance may vary, but the underlying common element remains a positive action, conceptualised to uphold the principles of equality and non-discrimination through differentiated measures of positive discrimination. One of the prime examples of such targeted interventions includes securing and channelling financial resources necessary for transforming words into action and making a real difference on the ground for national minorities. The purpose of this paper is to offer a profound assessment of the notion of positive discrimination in the international and national sphere, with particular emphasis on positive arrangements of the Cohesion policy of the EU, structured to provide targeted allocations of the EU funds for a concrete, perceptible, and efficient protection of national minorities in the Member States. The paper combines doctrinal research with the socio-legal approach in outlining the support schemes of the Cohesion policy financing the needs of national minorities in Croatia over the span of ten previous and ten upcoming years.