European Union and Minorities: Different Paths of Europeanization?

Europeanization literature does not bring together member and candidate countries in a single comparative framework. Focusing on minority governance, an issue area which is not part of the acquis, I compare Europeanization in these two sets of countries. In the candidate countries the EU triggers a top-down change in minority language policies through conditionality.

Alternatively, in the member countries it provides the space for a bottom-up change in such policies through boomerang pattern, as the European institutions fund non-state actors and help them form coalitions resulting in rising demands from the member countries. Using reports on EU-funded projects, and examples from Latvia, Turkey, Sweden, and Northern Ireland, I demonstrate that in minority governance, Europeanization is not a uniform process and it operates within different institutional logics: logic of consequences in the candidate countries vs. logic of appropriateness in the member countries. This variation is an important determinant of the outcome of Europeanization.

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