This paper describes the impact of European Union accession negotiations on language ideological debates regarding minority (language) and citizenship rights in the Baltic Republics. It explores issues pertaining to the transferability of standards developed for established democracies in the West to the situation of democratising countries in Central and Eastern Europe, where the demographic legacy of the Soviet past has left its imprint on the structure and outlook of society. Finally, it considers a range of factors which need to be taken into account in Western discourses on diversity and integration, or sameness and difference, when applied to postcommunist or post-imperialist contexts. (Contains 11 notes.)