National bonds, foreign policy and the future of Europe

The national minority question can hardly be tackled satisfactorily by traditional foreign policy, which operates with the traditional or, if you wish, old-fashioned concept of sovereign nation states with fairly hard borders. National minorities can only enjoy their rights in Europe where borders are open and states are sharing sovereignty. The current effort to restore Europe’s borders will negatively affect national minorities, but we are not condemned to such a scenario. In an integrated Europe, resembling a complex web of cooperation between a variety of territorial actors – states, cities, region and the EU – there is no particular need for a kin-state policy protecting fellow nationals across a border. This scenario looks unlikely in the coming years, but in the long-term perspective borders are not just a function of political decisions, but also, if not chiefly, a function of technological and societal trends which seem to spur unbounding.