National minorities in Europe

When this handbook was published in German in 2000, it was greeted with a very positive reception. This was against the background that although after the great changes in Europe, ethnicity and the issue of national minorities had once again become acute, up until then their quantitative dimensions had hardly been known, in spite of conspicuous manifestations of ethnic regional conflicts that have broken out since 1990. Since European policy decisions are now increasingly being made at the international level, this updated, English language edition is directed at a broader, European public. In its main section, the handbook, which has been conceived as a reference work, answers questions about the continued existence, size, and areas of settlement of the national minorities in the individual states of Europe. Supplementary overviews are dedicated to the size, linguistic classification, and national categorization of the eighty-seven peoples of Europe, the languages of Europe, or the size categories of the national minorities of Europe. In addition, the handbook deals with the requirements of modern protection of minorities that are anchored in democracy and the rule of law, including autonomy, as well as the development of a European system of minority protection whose central documents are found in the appendix. Finally, with the right to one’s homeland and the political organization of minorities, two of the essential requirements for the efficacy of minority protection are discussed in detail.