Minorities and multiculturalism
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Belgium: Cutting out an irritating word
20 September 2012708PresseuropDe Morgen -
Press: Minority languages getting their voices heard
14 June 20122301 Hufvudstadsbladet Helsinki -
Latvia: Russian, an official EU language?
17 February 201213610 Postimees Tallinn -
Bulgaria: Collapse of a so-called social model
30 September 20111763 Trud Sofia -
Lithuania-Poland : School strike suspended, tensions remain
5 September 2011PresseuropPolska The Times -
Regions: The Szeklers have come to Brussels
3 June 20111596 România libera Bucharest -
Germany / Poland: Bundestag to rehabilitate Polish activists
25 May 20111PresseuropGazeta Wyborcza -
Poland: The irreducible autonomy of Silesia
31 March 20111443 Hospodářské Noviny Prague -
Poland-Lithuania: Polish-Lithuanian education feud
31 March 2011PresseuropRzeczpospolita -
Editorial: For a transparent immigration policy
18 February 2011441Presseurop -
Slovakia-Hungary: Proposal for dual nationality
18 February 2011PresseuropSME -
Multiculturalism: Tolerance doesn't mean you say nothing
11 February 20112561 Spiked London -
United Kingdom: Multiculturalism takes another hit
7 February 20112063 Presseurop -
Netherlands: Multi-ethnic schools not a priority
7 February 201114PresseuropDe Volkskrant -
A take on Europe : I have a dream
4 February 20117381 The Guardian London -
Culture: Denmark’s canon – a damp squib
27 January 201139 Presseurop -
Poland: Restaurants not for Roms
27 January 2011213PresseuropGazeta Wyborcza -
Immigration: Fertility, GDP, and the Vietnamese...
19 January 2011874 Dziennik Gazeta Prawna Warsaw -
Baltic states: Where minorities must hold their tongue
6 January 2011814 De Volkskrant Amsterdam -
Demographics: Romania 2050 will be Roma?
5 January 20113PresseuropGandul -
THE 10 DAYS OF EUROPE | 10: A multicultural renaissance
2 January 201150710 Presseurop -
THE 10 DAYS OF EUROPE | 2: Saddle those horses
25 December 20103682 Presseurop -
Minorities: My week as a gypsy
10 November 201012311 Adevărul Bucharest -
Poland / Lithuania: Why Warsaw and Vilnius are at loggerheads
4 November 201054 Rzeczpospolita Warsaw -
Hungary-Slovakia: Two towns divided by a consonant
23 August 2010261 Libération Paris -
Denmark: Roma are Copenhagen's undesirables
6 July 2010PresseuropPolitiken -
Slovakia: Anti-Rom election campaign
5 May 2010PresseuropSME -
Germany: “Ossis” not an ethnic group
16 April 2010PresseuropSüddeutsche Zeitung -
Editorial: Pariah nation
9 April 2010412Presseurop -
Romania: Hungarian minority celebrates World Day
15 March 2010PresseuropGandul -
Moldova: Transnistria welcomes Russian missiles
16 February 2010PresseuropJurnal de Chisinau -
Poland/Belarus: Lukashenko cracks down on Poles
16 February 2010PresseuropGazeta Wyborcza -
Belgium: Turkish cinema bigger than Hollywood
10 February 201013 De Standaard Brussels -
A town in Europe: Cieszyn, a border run through it
5 February 2010241 Polityka Warsaw -
Netherlands: State of emergency to quell ethnic riots
5 January 2010PresseuropDe Volkskrant -
Czech Republic: Apartheid begins in the school
8 December 2009104 Respekt Prague -
Enlargement: Bosnia on the brink
18 November 20093 Die Tageszeitung Berlin -
Citizenship: Doing away with the national question
7 October 2009Postimees Tallinn -
Romania: Who's afraid of Szeklerland?
29 September 2009112 Evenimentul zilei Bucharest -
Minorities: Letter opens Poland-Lithuania rift
25 September 2009PresseuropGazeta Wyborcza -
Hungary/Romania: Transnational...Transylvania
26 August 20091 Neue Zürcher Zeitung Zurich -
Slovakia / Hungary: Only say it in Slovak
31 July 2009Heti Világgazdaság Budapest
On a continent where linguistic issues can still cause national strife, minority media play an under-publicised but important role. 
Latvians will vote, on February 18, on whether to grant Russian the status of official second language. A legacy of the Soviet Era, this linguistic issue is divisive in a country that is seeking to forge a common identity. 
The riots that rocked the village of Katounitsa and several cities across Bulgaria have not only marked a sudden upsurge in anti-Roma sentiment: an anthropologist argues that they are also a symptom of a sick society which has been unable to overcome the scourge of clientelism. 
The Hungarian minority region in Romania is to open an office in Brussels. Bucharest sees the move as a Hungarian provocation, the daily Romania Libera as merely an example of European regions wanting more money and more autonomy. 
Silesians. They have their own language, a long history and they live in one of the richest regions of Poland. Today their calls for autonomy are echoing louder and louder. When they enjoyed unexpected success in regional elections last autumn for the first time in twenty years, Warsaw woke up to a problem in its territories along the Czech border. 
First Merkel, then Cameron, now Sarkozy. Across Europe, multiculturalism and its legacy are in the dock. But according to sociologist Frank Furedi, multiculturalism is divisive because it promotes a watered down version of tolerance. 
A few months after Angela Merkel controversially argued that the multicultural society in Germany had “utterly failed”, David Cameron’s 5 February speech echoing the Chancellor’s sentiments has revived the debate about national identity in the British press. 
Let's break the deadlock between anaemic liberals and xenophobic extremists to give Europe new meaning and purpose, argues Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Žižek. 
Five years ago, the Danish government established a list of works that were supposed to define the nation’s cultural heritage in a context of immigration and globalisation. Today, the Danish press notes that the canon has largely been forgotten. 
Is there a way to satisfy a need to grow the labour force and set right the wrongs of history? In differing contexts, Hungary, Romania and Spain have found a solution, reintegrating “compatriots” living abroad. Here, a conservative Polish columnist offers his own peculiar remedy for the immigration “threat”... 
The linguistic rights of the sizeable Russian and Polish minorities in the three former Soviet republics, which joined the EU in 2004, are hardly recognised. A Dutch journalist deplores governmental intransigence on the issue of languages. 
Say goodbye to conformity, corruption and fawning to elites, and make way for a multicultural melting pot to renew the continent’s sapped energies, writes Italian economist Loretta Napoleoni in a letter to her son. 
Given the political, social and religious confusion that plagues Europe, Spanish philosopher Fernando Savater pleads for a new spirit of openness to talents, ideas and creeds. 
What’s life like for the Roma in Romania? To find out, an Adevărul journalist dressed up as a gypsy for a week. He didn’t experience any direct discrimination, just general contempt. 
With growing bitterness, Poland believes that its partnership with Lithuania is one built on empty promises. At the heart of the debate - the rights of the Polish minority in the Baltic state. 
Komarno and Komarom are twin towns divided by the Danube and centuries of rancour between Slovaks and Hungarians. But this flashpoint of nationalist tension that spilled over into an international incident last year is not all what it seems... 
While too unrefined and exotic for the Flemish, and sometimes shown without subtitles, Turkish movies often draw bigger crowds in Belgium than even American or homegrown productions, thanks to a limited but avid audience. A report from De Standaard. 
It is not easy to celebrate a common past in a town that has been divided by history. However, in spite of tensions between Poles and Czechs, life in Cieszyn and Český Těšín is beginning to benefit from the border that separates the two towns. 
A third of Roma children in the Czech Republic attend special schools for the mentally handicapped. A situation against which a number of associations are speaking out, and which ends up backfiring on the state when it has to foot the social and economic bill. 
For Bosnia, the road to Brussels is paved with constitutional reform. But in the current talks between European, American and Bosnian leaders, Brussels has shown a dearth of discernment that could endanger the democratic process, worries Tageszeitung. 
Now that the borders have disappeared and its powerful Russian minority is calling for enfranchisement, Estonia is rethinking its concept of “cohabitation”. Postimees argues that this is something all countries should do, especially in light of latter-day immigration. 
In the run-up to the 22 November presidential election in Romania, leaders of Transylvania's Magyar community are campaigning for an autonomous Szeklerland. But in a region where Magyars and Romanians live happily side by side, the local population appears largely indifferent to demands for independence, notes Evenimentul Zilei
Faced with mounting calls for autonomy from the Hungarian minority in Transylvania, backed by nationalist hardliners in Budapest, Bucharest is redoubling efforts to ensure their allegiance to the Romanian flag.
Recently adopted in Bratislava, a law obliging Slovak citizens to express themselves in Slovak in public areas has prompted an outcry in Budapest, which views it as an infringement of the rights of Slovakia's Hungarian minority. With political rhetoric reaching fever pitch on both sides of the Danube, Hungarian weekly Heti Világgazdaság calls on the European Union to halt what it views as a dangerous upsurge in Slovakian nationalism.