This article assesses the impact of Europeanization on the minority protection policies in Bulgaria. The diffusion
of European norms into European Union and the declaration of the Copenhagen Criteria in 1993 marked the
respect for minority rights as a condition for EU membership, which is defined as part of the “acquis
communitaire” of the European Union. 658 In this paper, I ask “which domestic factors lead to the
Europeanization of minority policies” to analyze the impact of Europeanization on the minority policies in
Bulgaria. Utilizing the data from European Union official documents and reports from the year of official
candidacy to accession, I explore the influence of the “significant institutions” and “mobilization of ethnic
minorities” on the Europeanization process of minority protection rights in Bulgaria.