Coppieters Foundation

Background Unity in diversity, the motto of the European Union (EU), first came into use in 2000. This widespread motto is frequently cited as an expression of European harmony and unity between dissimilar individuals or groups. It also signifies how European citizens have come together, in the form of the EU, to work for peace and prosperity, while at the same time being enriched by the EU's many different cultural communities, traditions, and languages. The respect for language diversity is also portrayed as a means to foster development and economic growth, and multilingualism is regarded as an important element in Europe's competitiveness. Within this context, regional and local languages are viewed as an integral part of European identity and the most direct expression of culture.

This report stems from a unique event: Feminisms from the Peripheries, organized by Coppieters Foundation and Iratzar Fundazioa, and held on 29 November 2022 (L42 business center & workspaces, Rue de la Loi 42) in Brussels, Belgium. The content of this report derives from the interesting and powerful interventions from women – activists, academics, researchers, journalists and scholars – from places as diverse as Northern Ireland, Kabylia, Catalonia, Scotland, Brittany and the Basque Country. The audience also enriched the event with questions and comments. This report contains the essence of the discussions held, which gave special attention to two topics: (1) language and feminism, meaning how discourse shapes our realities and has been used to perpetuate discriminations and (2) the concept of intersectional feminism.

This collection of essays is a product of almost a year of research, reflection and writing on feminist possibilities and transformations that followed a two-day event “Feminism on the Peripheries of Europe” with the aim of educating and engaging young people of Wales and beyond on intersectional feminist issues. Together with the authors of this book, we approached the ambitious task of centring young voices in discussions on feminism with both critical and liberatory intent.

Why does our book focus on Europe’s peripheries? Europe, and our world as a whole, is structurally and institutionally unequal. The notion of ‘periphery’ reflects complex positionalities of communities, some of which are located on the margins, invisibilised and marginalised. By recognizing that within Europe there are fluid and subjective realities and peripheries in relation to the core or centre, we can map locations of power and resistance, including feminist engagement.

This book is an attempt to redraw the map, preserve histories and herstories, inspire solidarity and coalitions, spotlight moments of transgression and provide a basis for feminist cross-cultural work. As you will see, the authors of this book use a feminist lens to discuss inequality, unrecognized identities, peripheral locality and uneven power structures as factors of oppression that Europe’s minorities and minoritised nations continue to struggle against.

Contemporary definitions of feminism agree that to be a feminist is to be “a person who believes in the social, economic and political equality of the sexes”. But what does this mean in practice? As this book demonstrates, feminist practice means a complete overhaul on every level to build an intersectional, inclusive feminist society.

As sexism and gender-based oppression affects over half of the world’s population, it is not unexpected that the battle for equality will include individuals who have also suffered from racism, homophobia, transphobia, classism, xenophobia and other forms of oppression. Intersectionality, a term fashioned in 1989 by civil rights campaigner and legal scholar Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw, shows that social identities and experiences intersect, overlap, affect one another, and create a whole that is different from the component identities.

Our book does not intend to shy away from complexity and diversity, but to showcase it.Although women have a lot in common in terms of experiencing patriarchy, by centring the voices of women from minorities or oppressed nations, we start to see the importance of intersectionality in the way that it embraces diversity of experiences, needs and interests.

The development of second homes, such as vacation homes used for summer or weekend getaways, is a phenomenon that characterizes the growth of European societies. There are many reasons for the existence of second homes and they have evolved over time. The dominance of the market economy, the competition that goes with it, and the increasing mobility of individuals has re-organised where and how we live.
The has resulted in the segregation of spaces. On the one hand, there are human concentrations in large cities where life and work constraints that are sometimes hard to bear, and on the other, there are rural, mountainous or coastal areas that are often left out of economic dynamism, but are closer to the nature and idealised by urban dwellers. Often located on the outskirts of the European Union’s developed areas, these territories have adapted to welcome temporary incomers. However, the phenomenon is far from being properly managed, but above all, it is not without its problems in the host territories.

Our book demonstrates how second homes, when are built in large concentrations, tend to destabilise the local economy, environment and culture. They foster financial speculation, seasonal economies, environmental degradation, rising land/property prices, shortage in quality housing and loss of cultural identity in Europe’s underdeveloped, but picturesque and culturally-rich regions.

In some places, such as in Cornwall, Wales, Brittany, Corsica, Mallorca, and the Adriatic, the ratio of second homes is as high as 60% to 80% of the housing capacity. These areas have seen their landscapes transform rapidly, their natural environments destroyed, their productive economy replaced by a short-term tourist economy, and their housings prices sky-rocket, while empty houses with closed blinds continue to spread.

The book is therefore also an invitation to redesign our life in a very different way and to reconsider the link to our environment from a more endogenous and responsible point of view.

Around Europe, minority and lesser-used languages are being diluted and submerged within or by dominant nations through active or passive policies. By analysing and comparing the situation of national media landscapes in several European stateless nations and regions, the authors of this book have developed new proposals about how to promote and protect languages and cultures through media systems.

Reflections on this issue remain pertinent and relevant as media contributes to the prestige and use of a language. In the case of languages that find themselves in a minority position, where there is also often a growing sense of linguistic insecurity and social disharmony, media can play a decisive role in their survival and well-being.

Media is an undeniable part of our everyday life, and more than ever before, it is easily within reach and surrounds us at all times, everywhere we go. Mass media, be it traditional or social, remains the primary source of information and education in contemporary societies, cultivating public opinion and constituting new realities in subtle and not so subtle ways. Furthermore, plurality of media is one of the touchstones for measuring the quality of democracy. Any movement, be it social or political, that wants to have an impact on society needs to have access to media in a fair and sustainable manner.

This book provides a theoretical road-map for social and political movements for setting up their own communication agendas in the context of globalisation and neoliberalism, which have transformed media landscapes, making them highly heterogenous, complex and competitive. Smaller players face the challenge of creating their own unique brand of meaning(s), which not only provide internal cohesion, but distinguish it from all others.

The task of minority media is to reclaim a geographic and symbolic space for the disadvantaged language community by using minority languages, asserting national or cultural identities, maintaining and sharing social practices, and interpreting or amplifying political priorities. As this book shows, developing a communications agenda for a national minority or stateless nation is a collective act of cultural and political resistance, because it can challenge prejudices and stereotypes, as well resist central powers and state-nationalist ideologies, that are embedded in language and disseminated by media, and later, reproduced by consumers themselves in their daily lives.

With widespread environmental concerns across Europe, sustainable energy is a recurring subject in public debates and discussions. The production of renewable energy is more environmentally friendly and usually safer, and its development is key to tackling climate change and ensuring energy diversification for European nations.

We already possess the capacity and the know-how to make the green energy transition technologically and economically viable. Biomass, concentrated solar power, geothermal energy, hydropower, tidal energy, wave energy and wind turbines all have huge potential for Europe. But their development remains limited.

There are several socio-political factors hindering the green energy transition. First, the political situation in a country can be detrimental to the development of sustainable energy, particularly where there is a degree of instability or insecurity, or systemic problems. The insecurity caused by Brexit, for instance, results in fewer investments, making the transition to renewable energy complicated for regions like Yorkshire.

A low level of awareness and public support in certain areas can also make it hard to achieve set goals and to implement renewable energy policies. In Galicia, there is a lack of public information available: civil society lacks knowledge about the benefits of renewable energy sources and subsequently, the benefits of supporting these energies.

A lack of urgency is also a factor, slowing down the green energy transition even when the technology and financial resources are already available. Some governments do not express the urgency of transitioning to renewable energy, so society does not perceive it to be an urgent matter.

Finally, some nations may prefer other energy sources, perhaps because of tradition or because they have been the targets of lobbying from the non-renewable energy sector. The historical and cultural importance of coal in Silesia, for example, is an obstacle to the transition towards renewable energy.

Why look into sustainable energy?
With widespread environmental concerns across Europe, sustainable energy is a recurring subject in public debates and discussions. The production of renewable energy is more environmentally friendly and usually safer, and its development is key to tackling climate change and ensuring energy diversification for European nations.

We already possess the capacity and the know-how to make the green energy transition technologically and economically viable. Biomass, concentrated solar power, geothermal energy, hydropower, tidal energy, wave energy and wind turbines all have huge potential for Europe. But their development remains limited.

How come renewable energies are still so marginally used at a European level?
There are several socio-political factors hindering the green energy transition. First, the political situation in a country can be detrimental to the development of sustainable energy, particularly where there is a degree of instability or insecurity, or systemic problems. The insecurity caused by Brexit, for instance, results in fewer investments, making the transition to renewable energy complicated for regions like Yorkshire.

A low level of awareness and public support in certain areas can also make it hard to achieve set goals and to implement renewable energy policies. In Galicia, there is a lack of public information available: civil society lacks knowledge about the benefits of renewable energy sources and subsequently, the benefits of supporting these energies.

A lack of urgency is also a factor, slowing down the green energy transition even when the technology and financial resources are already available. Some governments do not express the urgency of transitioning to renewable energy, so society does not perceive it to be an urgent matter.

Finally, some nations may prefer other energy sources, perhaps because of tradition or because they have been the targets of lobbying from the non-renewable energy sector. The historical and cultural importance of coal in Silesia, for example, is an obstacle to the transition towards renewable energy.

What can be done about it?
To overcome these obstacles, European nations must set ambitious policy targets and create real incentives to encourage the transition to sustainable energy. Ultimately the solution to the green transition is both social and political.

It is about strengthening democracy and political systems, and making the process a truly inclusive and participatory one, allowing all voices and concerns to be heard. So that sustainable energy solutions are found at the local level and adapted to local contexts.

Over the past century progressive leaps have been made in eliminating women’s formal discrimination. Gender equality is now part of the binding catalogue of EU fundamental rights, yet it has been implemented unevenly across the union. Women in the EU make up more than half of the electorate, yet women continue to be under-represented in decision-making positions and processes, despite being highly educated.

Women’s engagement with institutions of power is as varied as the women themselves, and it often reflects their social location. This research uses intersectionality as an analytical tool for recognizing that people experience multiple social systems of oppression and responding to the ways in which gender intersects with other social categories of identity. By using case studies and testimonies, the study shows that discrimination can occur on more than one ground. This is experienced as either multiple disadvantage, cumulative disadvantage, or intersectional discrimination.

According to minority and migrant women themselves, gender hierarchies, discrimination, and violence remain entrenched in different ways across multiple arenas in their lives. Persistent inequalities hinder their more explicitly political activity like running for political office or campaigning with political parties. Women in our study blame a combination of language discrimination, lack of political education, an anti-migrant climate, and gender-based discrimination for inhibiting their political participation. Many do not join existing associations because they view them as unrepresentative to women and express feeling silenced and dismissed as inferior within mainstream political structures.

As this book demonstrates, although progress has not been uniform or uncontested, minority and migrant women have organised to demand their rights, change cultural attitudes, reform laws and policies, build women’s policy institutes, and provide vital social services to women in need where formal institutions have failed to do so. This paper outlines how minority women engage with social movements, political parties, and governmental institutions, while navigating their distinct political environments.

The aim of this study is to identify qualitative and quantitative differences in representation, analyse factors that produce better levels of representation in some places but not in others and describe historical and recent developments in different parts of Europe. It draws conclusions by identifying factors that impact women’s political participation and representation, mapping commonalities and differences across Europe, as well as listing policy recommendations to further women’s effective political equality.

Right-wing extremist parties have been rather weak in southern Europe. The two main exceptions have been the case of the Front National in France and the various far right traditions in Italy, which since the 1990s have gained increasing prominence in their respective party systems.

Since the 2007 Financial Crisis —and the austerity policies that followed—the prominence of these parties has increased significantly. Organizational discontinuities, the emergence of new actors, or changes in leadership and electoral strategies suggest that during these years there has been a fourth wave of evolution of far-right parties in southern countries of the continent. The emergence of Vox or Chega in Spain and Portugal respectively, Italian radical right’s break up with previous traditions, or the quantitative and qualitative leap experienced by the new Marine Le Pen-led Front National are surely good examples of some of the distinctive features of this new stage.

In order to explore this and other similar issues emerging since the 2019 European elections, Fundacio Nexe and the Coppieters Foundation organized a workshop entitled “Facing the new radical right in southern Europe” in May 2019. This book is, to a large extent, the result of the work carried out during those days in which several European experts addressed various issues related to the radical right in Europe, Spain and the Valencian Country.

This book’s aim is to show readers the main radical right-wing parties’ evolution through a comparative overview in Spain and southern Europe in recent years. The main guiding question throughout the whole research is to point out the impact that the Financial Crisis of 2007 has had on these parties. The book is divided into two major parts. The first part deals with the main radical right-wing parties’ evolution in Italy, France and Portugal before and after the economic crisis that hit Europe between the late 2000s and mid-2010s. The book’s second part focuses on the Spanish case.

The authors examine the remarkable transformations experienced inside parties that had already been relevant in previous decades, the demand and supply factors that limited these parties’ settlement during the previous decades, as well as those helping to understand their current growth, and lastly, the authors consider some of the challenges faced by this new political family in southern Europe.

This study written by Sílvia Claveria and published by the Coppieters and Josep Irla foundations proposes a feminist and comparative perspective on women in cabinets. It analyses the presence of women in European governments and asks why the topic is an important one.

Demands for self-determination have long been associated with the European Union (EU), yet time has resolved neither their complexity nor their many inherent contradictions. Still today, a logic of unitary sovereignty prevails in the Union, putting nationalism and statehood on a collision course.

The EU has traditionally maintained that regional matters and the consequent participation of regions in European affairs are not a European subject but an internal matter for States. In addition, EU membership is limited to sovereign States meeting the Union’s admission criteria, and statehood therefore retains meaning for nationalists because it is the one means through which they can be recognised as sovereign equals in the polity.

But at a time when State functions are arguably waning or being profoundly transformed by authority re-scaling in the EU, it is urgent to clarify how the latter could offer the most appropriate template to meet the aspirations of stateless nations. The role of the EU in transforming the relationship between regions and central States could be improved. Today’s challenge is how to devise an institutional set-up that could render the participation of the authorities of all EU nations in the Union’s governance truly effective.

With this in mind, the book gathers the contributions of two practitioners and eight academics who took part in an international conference organised by the Coppieters Foundation in September 2019 in Brussels. The event was divided in four panels with distinctive, though complementary goals, and the present publication follows the same alignment, with the aim to suggest out-of-the-box solutions for all actors involved: the EU, States and national entities. Our hope is that these insights will inspire those curious enough to explore this field, and give tools to preserve European values in the process.

The Covid19 pandemic has exacerbated the dramatic rise, in the past years, in the consumption of digital contents in Europe, be it new media, video games or streaming platforms. This trend leads us to ask which effects it has had on non-hegemonic languages: what kind of audiovisual offer has there been for non-hegemonic languages speakers? Has consumption increased for contents in those languages as well?

Contents in minority languages have to look for their place if they do not want to be side-lined in a “sea” of hegemonic languages. Since they are usually not used in mainstream productions, one does not easily find the shows or films produced in those languages and has even more difficulty finding contents that have been dubbed into these languages. This is the case at least on the most popular distribution platforms.

For those who want to consume and produce contents in non-hegemonic languages, the communications system, and especially the audiovisual one, has an important role to play in the short term. Content producers, those responsible for audiovisual media, platform owners, linguistic planners, civil society organisations and governments have the responsibility of facilitating the production of audiovisual content for those populations. The need for efficient telecommunications infrastructures to provide quality services to customers, such as optic fiber networks, is also strong.

In order to move forward in the direction of more linguistic diversity, powerful political and legislative decisions are needed. If Catalans, Galicians or Welsh want to have a suitable audiovisual offer in their languages in the new paradigm we are experiencing, elected officials have to make effective decisions in this direction, which might lead them to ask the deeper question of: what kind of audiovisual mass media is needed in stateless nations?

This book tackles all of these topics, with the aim of raising awareness about the cultural and linguistic effects that new modes of consumption of audiovisual products have on supply and demand in non-hegemonic languages. The publication also sheds light on the situations of various European languages in this context. This work stems from discussions having taken place during Ezkerraberri Fundazioa’s, ehuGune’s and the Coppieters Foundation’s conference “Audiovisual Media and Non-Hegemonic Languages. Challenges of the Future”.

Flexicurity is a concept that combines the notion of flexibility for businesses with the economic and social security for workers. The idea is to balance the interests and needs of governments, businesses and trade unions to guarantee the benefits of the welfare state.

Introduced in Europe in the 1990s as a mechanism to foster employment, this combination of security and flexibility has generated a transversal debate involving the political, social, legal and economic fields. Often associated with neoliberal economic postulates, the complexity of this policy suggests the need to adopt a broader perspective in order to fully understand its scope and consequences.

Despite its backing by the European Union, flexicurity is not yet fully embraced by European countries. In most bailed-out Member States, security has given ground to flexibility as the only measure for the recovery of the labour market. On the opposite side of the spectrum, other European States have embraced the Danish model of full flexibility combined with a high level of security in occupational terms, adapting it to their respective national contexts.

This research by Professor Montse Solé and published by the Coppieters and Josep Irla foundations analyses and compares Denmark, Norway, Finland and the Netherlands through case studies, and offers some public policy recommendations aimed at enhancing labour market opportunities for European regions.

Tourism is the third largest socioeconomic activity in the European Union, one that contributes significantly to the union’s economic growth as it encompasses a growing number of new destinations.

Despite its development in the European regional context, recent studies have identified problems related to the sustainable use of natural resources, innovation dynamics and specialisation patterns in the framework of the tourism industry on the continent. Research has showed that destroyed environments, over-developed landscapes and loss of cultural community, among others, could undermine European regional tourism in the future. The reality of tourism saturation is explored in this new publication.

Although tourism has significantly contributed to these problems, it has the potential to significantly contribute to finding new and sustainable solutions. Tourists, businesses and government bodies dealing with tourism and development have a responsibility to prevent and mitigate the negative impacts of modern tourism, and to make sustainable tourism accessible to all. They also should ensure that host communities, the environment and the climate are protected, today and in the future. Our publication explores possible solutions that can be found through, for instance, models like that of degrowth tourism.

This book stems from papers tackled and conclusions drawn during the University of Deusto’s, Ezkerraberri Fundazioa’s and Coppieters Foundation’s conference “Transforming tourism from a regional perspective: challenges, visions, ways forward“. It aims to reassess tourism policy and planning by critically examining tourism development models and considering how the focus on sustainability might shape future tourism planning and policymaking on the matter.

The growth in inequality in OECD countries has a long history, and the recent economic crisis has only confirmed this trend. Data from the past thirty years tells us that, in this particular field, society in OECD countries is currently at its worst. The high level of economic inequality and the debate about its economic, political and social consequences occupies a central place in the political agenda of governments and in the concerns of ordinary citizens, who, in many cases, see it as a potential threat to social peace, political stability and economic security and progress.

Despite this overall picture, a significant variability in terms of equality in all the OECD countries can be observed, even if we focus on those which are relatively rich. Relatively unequal countries (such as the USA and the UK) coexist alongside societies where income is distributed far more equally such as Norway and Denmark. In this work, we wished to focus specifically on an analysis of those countries which, despite enjoying the highest levels of equality, have not had to sacrifice much higher levels of prosperity. Whether by coincidence or not, nine of the ten countries (all of them European) that fulfil the defined conditions for prosperity and equality are small countries (which in our definition here means they have less than 20 million inhabitants). Germany being the exception in our sample of countries. In short, the results of our study clearly contradict the voices claiming that small states are doomed to irrelevance in the global economy. Not only that, but we can state that some of these small states are among the best at managing their economy; which means they can offer their citizens better deals in terms of economic welfare.

Our analysis shows that these ten countries share a final destination (equal distribution of income), however, they follow very different paths to get there. Some countries, like Switzerland, choose to promote equality in the processes of market income creation and distribution through very high employment rates and very little incidence of low wages. This makes the use of a very
powerful system of redistribution (via taxes and transfers) unnecessary and, in fact, the redistributive component of the Swiss tax system is virtually nil.

However, other countries such as Belgium and Germany base their egalitarian redistribution systems on a much more interventionist strategy, which allows them to correct distributions in market income that are relatively unequal. This is due, partly, to very poor employment rates (Belgium) or an inequitable wage structure (Germany). Finally, the most egalitarian countries in terms
of disposable income (Denmark and Norway) combine powerful redistribution mechanisms based, mainly, on the use of transfers with an efficient labour market allowing them to achieve relatively equitable levels of distribution of market income.

Although we should not resign ourselves to considering that the growth of inequality is inevitable, we must also recognize that it is a very complex phenomenon and one which is largely attributable to the major restructuring that has taken place in the global economy over the last forty years. Economic studies point to technological change and economic globalization
as two of the main factors responsible for the changes in income distribution. Given this fact, economic policy makers face the enormous challenge of ensuring economic growth and wealth generation that have a more inclusive character. They need to pay particular attention to measures that can foster a fairer distribution of income and one which ensures high levels of equal
opportunities for all members of society.

Centre Maurtis Coppieters and the European Free Alliance youth have compiled texts from more than 17 youth activists and academics to reflect upon the future of Europe and its emerging trends.

Defining the concept of self-determination is not the easiest thing to do. The first article of the United Nations Charter, which defines self-determination has been applied to various extents in the recent history.

A universal right – that is what the self-determination principle is. No more, no less! And just as with democracy, human rights, gender equality and sexual equality, there should be no limit to any universal right. Even if it were illegal, it would still remain a universal right.

This collective work reflects upon those ideas from a youth perspective.

The author of this paper, Dr. Jaume Lopez, examines the possibility of strengthening democracy and its three main constituents: Representation, Participation and direct democracy, though mainly focusing on advancements in the latter. The aim of this study is, therefore, to offer tools with which direct democracy can be improved. Special emphasis is put on the case of Catalonia. The study also gives insights from different contexts in which direct democratic elements are currently applied, ranging from the case of Switzerland to that of the United States of America. By focusing not only on improvements in direct democratic elements, but also on the democratic drafting of constitutions, the study reflects upon the content and the procedure of how a constitutional convention in the 21st century should look like.

"“Variations autour du concept d’empreinte culturelle” is the French translation of the study Approaches to a Cultural Footprint, conducted by Elna Roig and Jordi Baltà. It proposes to discuss the concept of ‘cultural footprint’ and examines its political implications. It focuses on protecting and promoting cultural and linguistic diversity in Europe. The notion of ‘cultural footprint’ appears as an analogy to ‘ecological footprint’, used since the 1990s to measure the impact of human action on natural resources and on ecosystems’ capacity to regenerate necessary resources for continuity of life.

Despite differences between the preservation of biological diversity or biodiversity, and cultural diversity, importing the idea of the “ecological footprint’ to a cultural context also means reasserting the importance of culture (in all its different tangible and intangible senses) to sustainable human development.

Approaches to a cultural footprint is a first step towards developing effective cultural policy impact assessment."

The main objective of this paper is to analyse those elements underpinning the economic governance in the European Union. Because in light of the current economic crisis, re-thinking the economic EU architecture, and in particularly that of the euro zone,  appears more important than ever.

Xabier Vence, the author of the study, argues that the crisis hitting the EU since 2007 is not only economic, but is, to a great extent, political. To him it represents the failure of a certain model of European integration which has proved to be all too fragile.

Analyzing the current financial, economic and political structure of Europe it becomes clear that there is an important choice to be made in terms of crises-exit policies: (1) continuing with the existing exit strategy, which will very probably lead to an economic impasse in the short to medium term, or (2) accepting the need to adopt a new paradigm, implementing deep institutional changes that steer up European economies.

Urgent action is needed, says Vence, because the problems are of such a scale that many voices question the future of the EU itself.  He himself, feels that either the EU will move decisively towards a more federal solution on a genuinely democratic basis, or it will regress to a scenario where a large measure of sovereignty
is restored to its constituent countries.

More and more, the current situation seems unsustainable.

The Ascent of Autonomous Nations is a joint effort by Centre Maurits Coppieters and the Welsh Nationalism Foundation to analyse Consociationalism and power-share at a European level.

The study is conducted by Matthew Dumford – researcher of Plaid Cymru – who aims to explore the current state of European democracy in relation to the on-going demands for independence from several sub-state governments within the EU. The research focuses on the three principal law making institutions of the EU, namely the Commission, the Parliament and the Council of the EU, and explores whether the current constitutional arrangements of these institutions incentivises independence for non-full members of the EU.

The report tries to resolve whether sub-state governments representing historic nations, such as Scotland and the Basque Country, suffer from a poor level of representation in the EU compared to comparable full members and ask whether their populations would be better democratically represented with full membership of the EU.

“The Future of Europe: an integrated youth approach” is a joint effort by the European Free Alliance youth (EFAy) and the CMC aimed at exploring and reflecting the opinions of young people about the future of Europe, the economic and social crisis, linguistic and cultural rights, democracy and climate change.

It compiles political views of Youth activists from all over Europe and it is in itself an exercise of promotion of linguistic diversity, since the articles can be read in the original language as well as in their English translation.

It represents a call for a more social and united Europe, one that takes into account the needs of its peoples that respects and protects its cultural and linguistic diversity and provides hope and opportunity for the future generations.

This study, conducted by Elna Roig and Jordi Baltà, proposes to discuss the concept of ‘cultural footprint’ and examines its political implications. It focuses on protecting and promoting cultural and linguistic diversity in Europe. The notion of ‘cultural footprint’ appears as an analogy to ‘ecological footprint’, used since the 1990s to measure the impact of human action on natural resources and on ecosystems’ capacity to regenerate necessary resources for continuity of life.

Despite differences between the preservation of biological diversity or biodiversity, and cultural diversity, importing the idea of the “ecological footprint’ to a cultural context also means reasserting the importance of culture (in all its different tangible and intangible senses) to sustainable human development.

Approaches to a cultural footprint is a first step towards developing efective cultural policy impact assessment.

The professors Jordi Matas, Alfonso Gonzalez, Jordi Jaria and Laura Roman analyse, with a comparative perspective, several legal cases involving partition of sub-central bodies in federal or para-federal states.

Their aim is to forecast the legal consequences for the European Union in the event of secession or dissolution of a one of its member states.

This study is needed because the political dilemas in some countries could, in the near future, bring to the situation in which the European Institutions would need to confront the Secession or Dissolution of a Member state and the current treaties haven't foreseen such a situation. That's why it is of a special importance that we draw the guiding principles of a European answer.

Electoral contestability refers to the level of competition that political parties need to confront to emerge in the political arena and in the decision-taking process within the Governing bodies of their circumscriptions. To put it in bluntly, it refers to how votes in an election are translated into seats in the parliament, and how this links with distribution of power among political actors.

Simon Toubeau studies the electoral systems of 8 EU Member States at local, regional, central and european level:  In the study we can see which are the burdens political parties must face in order to be elegible for the elections, and to gain seats in the chambers. It appears that smaller parties have much more difficulties than biger ones.

It is an interesting work to take into account when developing further electoral reform in Europe.

The systematic study of national and regional movements in Europe is far from being complete. It actually lacks a comparative approach at European level. One of the main stumbling blocks in the study is the lack of systematic and reliable data collection. The source material is dispersed over numerous archives of associations, parties, periodicals and private individuals. Some of those archives are managed on the basis of strict scientific criteria, but often it is heritage that risks being lost before it can be
preserved for the future, let alone be divulged and studied. That is why it is of the utmost importance that a European network of institutions and people who care for this heritage be created.

Luc Boeva set us in this study a list of all organisations, archives, institutions, parties and individuals bearing relevant information for the study of the subject and urges them to enter into a mutual partnership and collaboration.

This study identifies two main types of territorially decentralized state structures:

(i) federations (e.g. Germany, USA, etc.) and (ii) the territorial “special cases” where a limited part of a state territory has some form of political autonomy, i.e., regional autonomies (such as the Faroe Islands, Åland Islands, South Tyrol and others).

The latter territorial solution becomes relevant when, within the same state, in addition to a relatively homogeneous majority population, there is one (or more) historically and territorially well-established minority with deviating language, ethnicity and/or culture.
The focus of this report is on the territorial autonomies and, more specifically, the kind of autonomous regions that exist in Europe. The report presents and analyses six examples of self-governed (home-ruled) regions chosen to cover the sort of legal and political arrangements that usually characterise this type of territorial autonomy.

The territories examined in more detail are the Faroe Islands, the Basque Country, the Isle of Man, South Tyrol, Gibraltar and Flanders.

The review highlights these autonomies’ wide scope of room for manoeuvre in the light of similarities and differences in their legal and political status. Differences in their geo-political position, international presence, background history and language are also included in the analysis. In all six case studies, however, the main emphasis is on how the legal arrangements and the political partnership with the metropolitan states have affected the regions’ de facto autonomy and room for manoeuvre.

This paper is a joint initiative of Olof M. Jansson Foundation & Coppieters Foundation.

Background Unity in diversity, the motto of the European Union (EU), first came into use in 2000. This widespread motto is frequently cited as an expression of European harmony and unity between dissimilar individuals or groups. It also signifies how European citizens have come together, in the form of the EU, to work for peace and prosperity, while at the same time being enriched by the EU's many different cultural communities, traditions, and languages. The respect for language diversity is also portrayed as a means to foster development and economic growth, and multilingualism is regarded as an important element in Europe's competitiveness. Within this context, regional and local languages are viewed as an integral part of European identity and the most direct expression of culture.

... Armonk, NY: ME Sharpe. Eribes, Richard A,, N. Joseph Cayer, Albert K. Karnig, and Susan Welch. 1989. ... “Women in Public Administration.” In Public Administra-tion: The State of the Discipline, eds. Naomi B. Lynn and Aaron Wildavsky. Chat-ham, NJ: Chatham House. ...

This paper, firstly, introduces the main debates and topics concerning parties’ digital transformation and lays out a general view of digital structures and use of online tools within the selected cases, as well as specific initiatives found in some of the parties. Also, it intends to critically discuss the main patterns and principal features of digitalisation within EFA, and to propose some basic recommendations and some insights to build a future roadmap towards a more inclusive, effective and secure digitalisation.

Monopolies and oligopolies have for many years been a persistent fact of life in the European economy. The problem is by no means peculiar to
this part of the world, and is repeated everywhere a market economy is in place. In any case, whether because of the characteristics of certain
sectors of activity, or because of the decisions taken by the governments of the day, the truth is that many markets in Europe have traditionally been submitted to the power of large corporations, the interests of which have often diverged from those of the societies in which they operate.

Today, large corporations continue to dominate certain markets, some new and some traditional, although the way they hold this power has changed over time, with the degree of regulation, and ultimately the structure of the markets themselves.

Market power was previously exercised in a more direct and undisguised way, often in an environment lacking regulation. Today on the other hand, the mechanisms are much more subtle, to the point that consumers are often not fully aware of the extent to which their decisions are not strictly their own but are, to the contrary, conditioned and guided by others’ interests.

The future is in our hands: Contribution to the Conference on the future of Europe EVENT REPORT 1 | Background While big corporations and lobby groups enjoy access and influence upon global institutions and international decision makers, it is rare that citizens and NGOs are given the opportunity to speak up-and more importantly to be heard-in Europe. Social movements and minoritised groups are often at the periphery of the centres of power. For their part, stateless nations still lack solid procedures to partake in decision making at a European scale, and in some cases their citizens are underrepresented in European institutions. The Conference on the Future of Europe (CoFoE), a consultative exercise organised by the European Union institutions, offers a chance for those voices to be heard. It provides us with an important opportunity to debate, discuss and share our ideas and values to form another Europe.

Terms such as “independentism”, “nationalism”, “federalism”, “populism” and “sovereignism” are often used in ways that are far from their historical definitions and are therefore the subject of misleading criticism. This makes raising awareness about the dynamics of stateless nations difficult, since these nations’ claims are generally not understood by the general public. The media, in an attempt to read these political phenomena, also tend to simplify the definitions of those words, thereby exacerbating misunderstandings.

This paper serves as a written tool following a conference on this same topic which occurred on 4 September 2021 in Alghero, Sardinia, and co-organized with the Istituto Camillo Bellieni. The purpose of the conference, and this paper, is to provide tools and operate a re-definition of the above terms related to self-determination, thus providing a “dictionary” that would help understand the complexity of contemporary Europe and allow the public to better participate in public debates on these issues.

The public health crisis generated by the Covid19 pandemic and its consequences, along with the crisis management measures put in place by the European States and Union, deserve an analysis. The brutal socioeconomic and health impacts of this unforeseen crisis should make us reflect, among other things, on crisis management and social protection models, our public policies, political systems and the relationship between technology and human rights. For this reason, the Coppieters Foundation is releasing a series of papers by experts to reflect on various topics related to post-Covid19 Europe. Paper #1, focussing on governance, is available here.
In this paper, Martin Unfried, Senior Researcher at the Institute of Transnational and Euroregional Cooperation and Mobility (ITEM) at Maastricht University, discusses the general issue of solidarity during the crisis. For this he uses results of a research project in the Meuse-Rhine Euroregion. Unfried demonstrates why border regions were not prepared to tackle a pandemic situation with solidarity and well-coordinated action across borders. He also discusses why national crisis management did not enable cross-border solutions but rather led to more complexity for cross-border coordination due to national steering. The protection of national capacities became the main political objective of national governments, this having particular negative repercussions on the fundamental freedoms of citizens and companies in border regions. It also led to the revival of old-fashioned ideas about closing borders as a political instrument to safeguard national interest. We need to rethink the nature of cross-border territories and how cross-border governance could be strengthened in order to avoid the revival of national top-down steering in the future.

he public health crisis generated by the Covid19 pandemic and its consequences, along with the crisis management measures put in place by the European States and Union, deserve an analysis. The brutal socioeconomic and health impacts of this unforeseen crisis should make us reflect, among other things, on crisis management and social protection models, our public policies, political systems and the relationship between technology and human rights. For this reason, the Coppieters Foundation is releasing a series of papers by experts to reflect on various topics related to post-Covid19 Europe.

In this paper, Andreia Silva, PhD Candidate in Political Science and International Relations, and Sandrina Antunes, Researcher at the Department of Political Science, both from the University of Minho, provide an account of the compatibilities and inconsistencies of the EU Green Deal and Next Generation EU, and highlight the role of regional and local authorities (RLAs) in a post-Covid19 scenario. They show that the Green Deal and Next Generation EU are critical for the recovery of the EU, yet the future remains uncertain as the two frameworks are difficult to reconcile. Indeed, while the Green Deal puts the EU on a path towards sustainability, Next Generation EU remains a contentious proposition, as several inconsistencies have already been identified within it. In addition, in response to the Covid19 outbreak, RLAs are being called upon to ensure that it is realised with due haste, but the EU still lacks a coordination mechanism that can explicitly provide for their involvement in the preparation and implementation of national recovery and resilience plans.

The public health crisis generated by the Covid19 pandemic and its consequences, along with the crisis management measures put in place by the European States and Union, deserve an analysis. The brutal socioeconomic and health impacts of this unforeseen crisis should make us reflect, among other things, on crisis management and social protection models, our public policies, political systems and the relationship between technology and human rights. For this reason, the Coppieters Foundation will be releasing a series of papers by experts to reflect on various topics related to post-Covid19 Europe.

In this paper, Serafin Pazos-Vidal, PhD in European Union writing in a personal capacity, explores challenges and opportunities for power devolution and self-government. The pandemic makes the structural weaknesses and internal stresses of the EU plainly evident. The first half of 2020 has seen renationalising instincts to fight the pandemic. At the same time, the decision that was taken to incur into shared borrowing in order to finance Next Generation EU proves that big shifts happen during major crises. This, to the author, will herald more EU intervention in the national sphere under the guise of “structural reform”. The contestation between the EU and national courts, along with violations of the rule of law in some countries is becoming unsustainable. Given all of these elements, the author explains why the scope of enhancing the substate dimension through the Conference on the Future of Europe looks rather limited.

Climate justice activism and protest, including various forms of civil disobedience, are very much on the agenda worldwide. But due to a great diversity of political and human rights cultures, frameworks of civil liberties, freedoms, as well as policing and justice models in relation to protests vary enormously.

In the UK, there has been an acceleration and expansion of climate activism, and of civil disobedience, notably illustrated by the activities of Extinction Rebellion (XR) and Fridays for Future. The British government’s “Public Attitudes Tracker” has shown a steady increase in concern over climate change since 2015, with an even more rapid increase since 2018. The most visible protests have been school climate strikes and a wide range of activities convened by XR, which have involved highly publicised acts of civil disobedience. In February 2019, approximately 15,000 attended a strike in Bristol, organised by Fridays for Future. Overall, this activism of the young and school children is centred on intergenerational solidarity or, in other words, on sustainability and thinking about the future of coming generations.

In April 2019, Waterloo Bridge, one of the main crossings linking the south and north banks of the Thames in London, was blocked by protesters convened by XR. In the days that followed, thousands were involved in a ten-day blockade of strategic sites in the English capital. There were immediate calls on tough action and new legislation to control these civil disobedience actions, coming from conservative sections of society and politics. Since then, it is estimated that over 3,500 people participating in this and other civil disobedience actions have been arrested for minor offences and sentenced with paying fines and costs. Some 1,000 cases are still awaiting court decisions and civil rights groups are pressuring government and public authorities to stop prosecuting people for their peaceful civil disobedience. In September 2020, over 680 people were arrested in London related to XR-organised civil disobedience protests.

The pandemic has unquestionably limited climate activism, but actions have continued and in the case of XR, protest has centred on a new Policing Bill, the so-called Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill (PCSCB). On 3 April 2021, a protest was jointly convened with United for Black Lives and Black Lives Matter under the slogan “Kill the Bill”.

The PCSCB was elaborated by the British government and gives considerable new powers to the police in relation to the control and policing of demonstrations. One of the concerns raised by the bill’s opponents is that the text places an offence of intentionally causing “public nuisance” in law, with a maximum sentence of 10 years for actions which could include non-violently obstructing the public. The bill is also seen as using vague terms, left open to interpretation by the police. The latter is also given new powers against static protests and granted the ability to impose allocated times and where gatherings can be held. Overall, this bill is perceived by many as a risk of breaching protesters’ rights to freedom of expression and assembly, as well as the requirement for legal certainty.

Adding to those concerns, the bill was rushed through the British Parliament in March 2021 and voted on favourably only by the Conservative Party, which has an absolute majority in the House of Commons. On the other side of the spectrum, it has received an avalanche of criticisms by environmental and climate action movements, as well as human rights and civil liberties organisations in the UK.

The forces opposing the PCSCB all argue that the main threat to peaceful assembly and related freedoms today in the UK arises from this bill. The new law, considered anti-democratic, is seen as an immediate menace to basic civil liberties and civil disobedience strategies, as well as a severe limitation and challenge to climate change activism.

Rijeka is one of the few cities that was an internationally-recognised State for at least a short period. 2020 marks the 100th anniversary of the establishment of the Free State of Rijeka (Stato Libero di Fiume – FSR). The FSR was an internationally-recognised state of 28 square kilometers with about 52,000 inhabitants, founded in 1920 under the Treaty of Rapallo – established between the Kingdom of Italy and the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes – in a situation where the status of Rijeka/Fiume became a major international problem. The decisions of the two neighbouring countries were supported by the great powers and the majority of the city’s population, with Croats supporting an independent State of Rijeka rather than Italian nationalists advocating for unification with Italy.

Rijeka/Fiume had enjoyed autonomy from the surrounding states since 1779. The State existed de facto for about a year, and de jure until 1924, when it was annexed by the Kingdom of Italy.

Unlike the centenary of D’Annunzio’s entry into the city, which was celebrated in Rijeka last year with an exhibition at the Governor’s Palace, this 100th anniversary of the establishment of the Free State of Rijeka would have been missed had it not been for the Free State of Rijeka association and the Rijeka City Museum. This international scientific conference will be taking place at City Hall, despite the pandemic. 13 renowned experts from Italy, Slovenia, Hungary and Croatia will address the creation of the State of Rijeka. Historians will shed light on the circumstances in which it arose, its duration and disappearance. As part of the scientific conference, great attention will be paid to the role of Riccardo Zanella, probably the most renowned Rijeka/Fiume politician of the first half of the 20th century and the first and last elected president of the Free State of Rijeka.

This brochure was prepare in the context of the 100th anniversary of the establishment of the Free State of Rijeka (Stato Libero di Fiume – FSR).

The author of the paper, Pilar Kaltzada, aims to show how journalism is more than a matter of professional ethics, but also a matter of questioning  current power structures.

This vision of media as an element of power helps us understand how the media can be a tool to build some identities at the expense of others. This means that powerful groups have the resources to defend and promote their way to understand society and other groups stay in the margins of the mainstream. This plays a critical role in shaping our societies’ take on immigration, gender equality, climate action and respect for diversity, among other topics.

This book constitutes a reflection about the current state of Media pluralism in Europe and what journalists can do to champion it.

To the author of this paper, Anne Esser, the EU’s migration policy should be approached through a gender perspective.

With this publication, she aims to shed light on the reasons why women and girls face specific risks, vulnerabilities and needs as migrants, from the departure of their country of origin to their destination and through the asylum application process, as well as forced or voluntary return. She also underlines and illustrates the lack of gender considerations all along refugees’ journeys, affecting women’s experiences with discrimination and sexual and gender-based violence.

At the end of the paper, Anne Esser shares her conclusions and recommendations on how the EU can become more respectful of women’s and human rights in its migration policies. Steps should be taken, for instance, to reduce migrant women’s dependence to their husbands’ legal statuses in asylum procedures, as well as to legally empower them through awareness-raising, so they are able to better claim the rights to which they are entitled. These necessary steps should also translate into the ratification by all EU Member States of the 2011 Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence.

POLITICAL LIVES is a series of biographies of remarkable politicians, scholars and activists that helped shape our societies throughout the XX century.

The second issue of the collection is devoted to Lluís Companys the only
democratically elected president to be executed during the Second World War.

He worked as a journalist, labour lawyer, union organiser, town councillor and member of parliament (MP) before becoming the president of Catalonia.
He survived imprisonment in Madrid and Minorca and exile in occupied France, where he was arrested by the German military police, and deported to Franco’s Spain. There he was given a summary court martial
and shot on the grounds of Barcelona’s Montjuïc castle.

Franco was so concerned that Companys’s prestige would turn him into a Catalan national martyr, that he and his regime did their utmost to keep his execution secret for nearly four decades.

POLITICAL LIVES is a series of biographies of remarkable politicians, scholars and activists that helped shape our societies throughout the XX century.



The third issue of the collection is devoted to Alfonso Daniel Rodríguez Castelao, a Galician patriot, political democrat, and activist in favour of freedom of his people, in the first half of the twentieth century who was exiled in America after the fascist coup in Spain back in the spring of 1939.

Trained as a physician, his vocation and passion led him to become a caricaturist, illustrator, visual artist, journalist, writer, dramatist… but first and foremost a man that was committed to the Galician movement during the II Spanish Republic and in exile, until his passing in 1950.

A great speaker and organiser who —together with other figures such as Alexandre Bóveda, during republican times, or Antón Alonso Ríos, during their exile— united around himself thousands of Galicians in favour of a Free Galicia.

POLITICAL LIVES is a series of biographies of remarkable politicians, scholars and activists that helped shape our societies throughout the XX century.

The first issue is devoted to Maurits Coppieters, a politician who gained recognition in the post-war Flemish movement. A teacher by training and a youth leader at heart, for most of his life Coppieters was active in Flemish national politics and was deeply involved in the social and cultural life of the Flemish community, where the recurring themes of his work were social justice and pacifism.

Europe likes to present itself as a region looking for unity in diversity.

Unity and diversity, therefore, are foundational values of the European Union, cornerstones of the United Europe we would like to achieve. In the European way of thinking, and based on our shared values, unity and diversity are joined inseparably.

Languages play a fundamental role in this concept of unity and diversity. Languages form an important combination of values which we must take into consideration. In this context, we should underline four very specific values: communication, the economy and social cohesion.

For all these motives, we will immediately outline our reasons why we consider the creation of a European Agency for Multilingualism (EAM) to be necessary, the agency to be tasked with ensuring linguistic diversity in Europe and targeting the objective of ensuring that citizens of Europe speak at least
three languages fluently and easily, as the Europe 2020 Strategy suggests.

In this paper, former MEP Bernat Joan, invites everyone to reflect, propose and discuss pros and cons of a European Agency for multilingualism, and hopes this can be a reality after the European Elections scheduled for 2019.

This is the text of a speech delivered at the Coppieters Foundation dinner debate on 13 April 2018 in Landshut by Dr Anthony Soares, the Deputy Director at the Centre for Cross Border Studies (CCBS).

Dr. Soares, expresses concerns over the many unknowns and uncertainties around the negotiations over the UK’s withdrawal from and future relationship with the European Union progress – too slowly for some, all too quickly for others. Some of the uncertainties include what Brexit may mean for the UK’s constitutional arrangements, how it may impact on our ability to undertake cross-border cooperation and regional development, what it could mean for the mobility of a range of citizens and, of course, how we may in future trade with each other and how that will affect our economies.

He addresses this and other issues, like the impact of brexit in The Good Friday peace agreement in this paper.

The mass influx of vulnerable individuals who differ from the majority population in terms of ethnicity, religion and language has brought to the fore many challenges for European states.

Since 2015, when more than a million asylum-seekers and migrants entered the European Union, there has been a marked increase in xenophobia, intolerance and hate crime, particularly towards those of Muslim origin. This growth of intolerance has also directly affected other minorities, including Jews and Roma, who are facing more and more barriers to exercising their rights as minorities. Public attitudes towards immigration are becoming more and more polarised, with populist parties gaining  influence.

However, focusing on containment and deterrence of migrants, such as building ever higher and longer fences on Europe’s borders, or external detention camps in transit countries such as Libya, not only violates the human rights of migrants, but prevents successful integration and inclusion.

Dr Stephanie Berry, author of report, argues that a minority rights based approach helps to forge cohesive societies. The University of Sussex academic says that although the scale of the current situation and the specific groups of people arriving at Europe’s borders may be new, the challenges facing European states are not; those same challenges have been present for centuries. Dr. Berry suggests that we can build on this experience, and learn to recognise diversity as a strength, rather than a threat.

The conference entitled Migrations and Cultural and Linguistic Minorities in Europe was held in the Bizkaia Hall in Bilbao on 26 May 2016. It was organised by the Ezkerraberri foundation, EHUgune and Centre Maurits Coppieters. This paper gathers the most relevant contributions, thoughts and best practices to integrate a growing influx of migrants into diverse societies with 2 or more local languages.

The large numbers of migrants reaching Europe not only poses great challenges in terms of reception, settlements and social integration, it may also have unforeseen consequences for specific communities. Specially traditional minorities.

Europe has great linguistic and cultural diversity. There are over 80 autochthonous languages inside the European Union’s borders. Many of them are unprotected and lack any official status.

It is evident that if a large number of migrants arrive in a territory where two languages coexist and where one is the dominant one socially, this can pose a risk for the minority language. The newcomers may opt for the dominant language as a means of social integration, leaving the minority on the side. That situation can weaken the minority language even further.

Failure to properly manage migration flows and their impact on minority languages could result in minority languages suffering a clear, negative impact. Another potential consequence is the spreading of xenophobia and negative attitudes in society. It is clear that suitable, sensible policies have to be implemented if these risks are to be avoided.

Since 2015, the situation of refugees in Europe has become one of the main issues in Europe’s political agenda and at a global scale.

Protocols to handle influx, basic rights and integration of refugees have been thoroughly scrutinized and put into question in numerous occasions. Yet, NGOs on the ground keep raising concerns on the conditions newly arrived refugees suffer.

As the number of refugees arriving to Europe has risen, the number of those who are vulnerable has risen exponentially. We observe how refugee women are often especially unsafe. This is especially worrying because prior to 2015 refugee crises, migration was a mainly male phenomenon (in 2015 women and children accounted for merely 27% of the new arrivals), but in 2016 the percentage of women migrants rose above 50%. National and European public policies and humanitarian aid by NGOs and civil society has unfortunately proven insufficient to deal with this situation and its complexity.  Integration protocols have not been able to either prevent or efficiently deal with the dangers, exploitation and multiple forms of gender violence which women and girls face on their way to Europe or upon arrival.

Author of this report, Helena Castellà, believes it is important to analyse human and refugee rights within EU’s legal framework to stand against discrimination faced by refugee women coming Europe. In this report, she lists, human rights violations suffered by refugee women in their country of origin, in transit and at their destination to try to understand in depth this specific element of the current refugee crisis.

Former MEP, Bernat Joan, the author of this paper, intends to reflect on something that is still under construction (and probably still at an early stage): European citizenship, with a liberal, open and free-thinking approach. He focuses on his own experiences and intuitions, as if thinking aloud.

Although, the project has been built on the political will of its constituent nation states intent on establishing a common space on certain issues, Europe today is still an economic giant, but a political dwarf. It developed as an idea within the socio-economic sphere. An increase in the democratic quality of European decision-making can only be achieved by greater political consolidation, and in parallel, the construction of a sense of belonging and citizenship.

With the belief that a personal approach to the issue is crucial, his deliberations are based on his own views on the latest political developments in Europe, as well as what could happen should the process of European construction be allowed to come to fruition. In so doing, he shares his ideas, sensations, feelings and concerns with the readers. Yet, when writing, he had no intention to finalise his arguments, nor to offer a concrete model for Europe and its political structure.

The author proposes the idea of a Nation of Europeans, going beyond citizenship, as a space to engage with all nations on the continent with the goal of resolving national conflicts and providing solutions to challenges arising from the legitimate national aspirations of peoples whose ambitions have not yet been met. It must be a Europe of its citizens; a Europe of its peoples, including national minorities who many believe form part of the “currency” of Europe.

Former MEP, Bernat Joan, the author of this paper, intends to reflect on something that is still under construction (and probably still at an early stage): European citizenship. He focuses on his own experiences and intuitions and to reflect on them, as if thinking aloud.

His deliberations are based on his own perception of what the latest political developments in Europe, what is still Today going on and what could happen should the process of European construction be allowed to come to fruition. A personal approach to the issue at stake. He wishes to be about sharing ideas, sensations, feelings and concerns with the readers. yet when writing he had no intention to finalise his arguments, nor to offer a concrete model for Europe and its political structure when it is finally better established.

With this paper he offers a reflection, to be shared with whoever is interested, on this idea of a Nation of Europeans. This concept goes beyond citizenship, it represents a space in which to discuss the nature of all nations in the continent. To endure in the goal of resolving national conflicts and providing solutions to problems arising from the legitimate national aspirations of several peoples whose ambitions have not yet been met.

This paper by Jordi Baltà Portolés deals with the analysis of Euro-regions and cross-border cooperation within the European Union with particular emphasis on their relevance to nations, which have their territory divided across two or more EU Member States.

The aim of the document is to analyse how existing tools of cross-border cooperation, including Euro-regions and European Groupings of Territorial Cooperation (EGTC) among others, could contribute to strengthening relations among peoples sharing a language or culture or identifying themselves as part of the same nation, but which live in different EU Member States. In order to do so, the paper examines the general context of cross-border cooperation in Europe and a diverse range of case studies, which could illustrate opportunities for communities sharing a language or culture. Focusing in particular on the public policy implications of these developments, the study analyses the motivations and areas of impact, which can be observed within cross-border cooperation (socio-economic development, improved service provision, community cohesion, cultural cooperation, European integration, etc.) and provides recommendations for stakeholders at different levels.

"Jaume Garau and Félix Pablo, authors of this policy paper, analyse fiscal transfers within the EU at a sub-central level: Their research is focused on how Cohesion funds impact on the specific cases of Aragon, Scotland, the Basque Country, Flanders, Galiza, Wales And Catalonia, Valencia and the Balearic islands.

They claim that even though redistribution mechanisms of European Funds are established by Brussels, state governments have plenty of leeway to decide how much of the European aid is in the end assigned to each region within the state. In other words, the governments in Madrid and London, for example, enjoy significant capacity to decide how much of the European Funds goes to each region within the State.

This capacity held by the governments of Member States can – at times – distort the initial purpose of the Cohesion Policy. The lack of transparency and clear criteria and targets about how European Funds are assigned among the regions within a State often leads to tension concerning the final sharing out of EU aid among regions: paradoxes occur in which areas with very similar per capita income and populations receive very different levels of European financing.

There are some cases of regions which have the same per capita income and the same population, however, they receive over three times more European Funds investments than others. In this case, the European Regional Policy does not help to harmonise the differences, but rather increase them.

The purpose of this study is to analyse what a series of regions receive in European Funds and what they contribute – in tax – to the European Union budget. The end target is to come up with a new tool to better evaluate the European Regional Policy and its effects."

"This article has been written in a key moment where both Scotland and Catalonia are intending to hold independence referenda in 2014. Nevertheless, that is effectively where the similarity ends; there are contrasting legal contexts and differing strategies to  achieve respective independence; each is subject to the constitutional arrangements of the political state in which it is currently incorporated; and the response of the state in each case has been markedly different. This article explores those differences and recent experiences concerning holding a referendum.

In particular the judgement of the Supreme Court of Canada (SCC) regarding the secession of Quebec from Canada is discussed and applied to Scotland and Catalonia.  What emerges from the exploration is the contention that for a process (or the absence of process) to be legitimate there must be application of underlying principles (or foundational constitutional principles, as described by the SCC) and that in Spain’s case that application is currently deficient.

This paper follows the debate held on 18 June 2013 in the European Parliament."

"The Ascent of Autonomous Nations is a joint effort by Centre Maurits Coppieters and the Welsh Nationalism Foundation to analyse Consociationalism and power-share at a European level.

The study is conducted by Matthew Dumford – researcher of Plaid Cymru – who aims to explore the current state of European democracy in relation to the on-going demands for independence from several sub-state governments within the EU. The research focuses on the three principal law making institutions of the EU, namely the Commission, the Parliament and the Council of the EU, and explores whether the current constitutional arrangements of these institutions incentive independence for non-full members of the EU.

The report tries to resolve whether sub-state governments representing historic nations, such as Scotland and the Basque Country, suffer from a poor level of representation in the EU compared to comparable full members and ask whether their populations would be better democratically represented with full membership of the EU.

There are two alternative versions available: one in English and another one in Galician language, translated by our partners Fundación Galicia Sempre."

"Diversité Linguistique. Un défi pour l’Europe is the French translation of Linguistic Diversity. A Challenge for Europe. It consists of a transcription of the conference hosted 4th March 2010 by the European Parliament and organized by the European Free Alliance (EFA).

The book is a transcription of the most relevant contributions of the seminar and it intends to give an overview of the different kinds of unresolved problems concerning the situation of languages in Europe. It follows the same structure as the one from the speeches of the conference and it is divided in three parts. The first one (Languages without a State) refers to the languages that suffer unfair discrimination within the Union. The prime example is Catalan, which is spoken by more than 10 million Europeans and can not be called a ‘minority language’ despite the fact that it bears no official status at a European level. Galician and Basque are in a similar situation, they are not under direct threat but actions should be taken to ensure its survival. The second (Minority languages within Member States) describes the situation of European lesser used languages and pays special attention among other endangered European languages to the Occitan, Breton, Franco-Provençal, Frisian, Welsh and Corsican cases. Finally, the last part describes the situation of those languages bearing no legal protection outside the borders of the state that considers them official yet they do not risk to disappear. A classic example is Hungarian: official in Hungary, but with no recognition in Slovakia, Romania and Serbia where Hungarian speaking communities are not entitled to its official use."

"2014-2020 Un autre cadre financier pluriannuel pour une nouvelle Europe" is a proposal by the Centre Maurits Coppieters (in a joint effort with Arritti) to rethink the 2014-2020 new European Multi Annual Financial Framework coming into force on 1 January 2014.

The author, Roccu Garoby, raises relevant questions regarding the Budgetary structure of the Union: What should Europe’s priorities be and how these are reflected in monetary terms? He is aware that the MMF is more than just a budgetary tool, it will in fact show a certain political vision of the European integration process. He claims that, the European Parliament’s position on the issue is conservative, devoid of ambition and not sustainable, yet still clearly more desirable than the initial proposal by the European Commission and far more supporting of the common institutions than what the Council seems to advocate for.

Facing a new wave of predominant intergovernamentalism, due to the the tensions created during the economic and financial and crises, he stands for a more united Europe where States devolve competences to the Union and Budgetary provisions for European Institutions increase significantly. He expresses the need for rethinking the 2014-2020 financial framework to respond the 2020 growth strategy objectives in an honest contribution to a much wider European political debate in this field.

"From Nations to Member States: A new architecture for Europe" summarizes conference hosted by the European Parliament (Brussels) on 9 November 2011 . It is the result of a joint effort by the Greens/European Free Alliance’s European Parliamentary Group and the Centre Maurits Coppieters.

The paper is a transcript of the first panel of the seminar and it intends to show different opinions expressed concerning new EU Architecture, Internal Enlargement, Subsidiarity, Autonomy, Devolution and Independence.

Among the contributors to the paper are:

Lieven Tack, visiting professor at the College of Europe. He is well-known for his opinions on regional autonomy in relation to EU integration.

Dr. Alan Sandry, lecturer in social and political theory at the University of Wales and member of the Centre Maurits Coppieters’ Board.

Alfonso González, lecturer in European Union Law at the Universitat Rovira I Virgili of Tarragona and co-author of the Centre Maurits Coppieters study on Internal Enlargement.

"Tourism and Identity" reflects in the framework of the Europe 2020 strategy and new competences on tourism attributed to the Treaty of Lisbon that allows for the creation of a a new legal basis entirely devoted to tourism, which should reinforce the EU as the foremost tourist destination of the world.

The study by Marien André, Lecturer of Applied Economics (University of Barcelona), concludes that tourism is a growing industry of special relevance for Europe (since it is the main touristic destination worldwide), also that more attractive cities base their appeal on culture in a broad sense – identity, gastronomy, lifestyle, monuments, museums because tourist pursue unique experiences, therefore a unique identity facilitates city branding. Fianlly she concludes that tourist cities are making an active effort to project themselves (their uniqueness) and this effort in promoting tourism has to be correctly planned to avoid risk of overcrowding, saturation, and even a loss of identity (when cities become theme parks).

In this paper you can also find an interesting preface by Frieda Brepoels, Member of the European Parliament for EFA in the Committee on Transport and Tourism.

"Language Diversity. A Challenge for Europe" is the transcription of the conference hosted 4th March 2010 by the European Parliament and organized by EFA.

The book is a transcript of the most relevant contributions of the seminar and it intends to give an overview of the different kinds of unresolved problems concerning the situation of languages in Europe. It follows the same structure as the one from the speeches of the conference and it is divided in three parts. The first one (Languages without a State) refers to the languages that suffer unfair discrimination within the Union. The prime example is Catalan, which is spoken by more than 10 million Europeans and can not be called a ‘minority language’ despite the fact that it bears no official status at a European level. Galician and Basque are in a similar situation, they are not under direct threat but actions should be taken to ensure its
survival. The second (Minority languages within Member States) describes the situation of European lesser used languages and pays special attention among other endangered European languages to the Occitan, Breton, Franco-Provençal Frisian, Welsh and Corsican cases. Finally, the last part describes the situation of those languages bearing no legal protection outside the borders of the state that considers them official yet they do not risk to disappear. A classic example is Hungarian: Official in Hungary, but with no recognition in Slovakia, Romania and Serbia where Hungarian speaking communities are not entitled to its official use.