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.