Research Handbook on Minority Politics in the European Union

Book excerpt: This timely Research Handbook provides a multidisciplinary overview of research on ethno-cultural minority issues at the supranational level of the EU. It delivers a state-of-the-art review of the EU's approaches to development and institutional implementation of minority policies from the Treaty of Rome until today. Through critical analyses, this Research Handbook addresses minority politics from the perspectives of politicization and depoliticization of minority rights, anti-discrimination, case law, cultural and linguistic diversity protection, cohesion and regional development as well as enlargement and external action. Chapters also focus on policy areas that indirectly affect the lives of ethno-cultural minorities as well as non-policy approaches emanating from the tensions in the EU architecture and legal framework. Although the Handbook confirms the EU's ambivalence towards minority politics, it also offers new views on a policy area that is under pressure to become more flexible. Offering an innovative approach in analysing policy, legislative and institutional developments, this Research Handbook will be an ideal read for students and scholars interested in European politics and public policy. Its critical insights on European policy will also make this a beneficial read to policy-makers.