The European Centre for Minority Issues (ECMI) is an academic

research institute A research institute, research centre, or research organization is an establishment founded for doing research. Research institutes may specialize in basic research or may be oriented to applied research. Although the term often implies natural ...

based in

Flensburg Flensburg (; Danish language, Danish and ; ; ) is an independent city, independent town in the far north of the Germany, German state of Schleswig-Holstein. After Kiel and Lübeck, it is the third-largest city in Schleswig-Holstein. Flensburg's ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

, that conducts research into minority issues, ethnopolitics, and minority-majority relations in

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

. ECMI is a non-partisan and interdisciplinary research institution. It is a non-profit, independent foundation, registered according to German Civil Law.

History and Governance

ECMI was established in 1996 by the governments of

Denmark Denmark is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe. It is the metropole and most populous constituent of the Kingdom of Denmark,, . also known as the Danish Realm, a constitutionally unitary state that includes the Autonomous a ...

, Germany, and

Schleswig-Holstein Schleswig-Holstein (; ; ; ; ; occasionally in English ''Sleswick-Holsatia'') is the Northern Germany, northernmost of the 16 states of Germany, comprising most of the historical Duchy of Holstein and the southern part of the former Duchy of S ...

. The Centre is governed by a board composed of nine members: three from Denmark, three from Germany, one representative from the

Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) is a regional security-oriented intergovernmental organization comprising member states in Europe, North America, and Asia. Its mandate includes issues such as arms control, the p ...

, one from the

Council of Europe The Council of Europe (CoE; , CdE) is an international organisation with the goal of upholding human rights, democracy and the Law in Europe, rule of law in Europe. Founded in 1949, it is Europe's oldest intergovernmental organisation, represe ...

and one from the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...

. The institute's first director was Stefan Troebst, now professor of East European cultural studies at the

University of Leipzig Leipzig University (), in Leipzig in Saxony, Germany, is one of the world's oldest universities and the second-oldest university (by consecutive years of existence) in Germany. The university was founded on 2 December 1409 by Frederick I, Electo ...

. His successor professor Marc Weller led the Centre from 1999 until 2009. Tove Malloy was then the director until 2019 and since March 2020, the political scientist Vello Pettai is the Director of the ECMI .

Research

The Centre is organized into 6 research clusters (Conflict and Security, Culture and Diversity, Danish-German Minority Issues, Equality and Inclusion, Justice and Governance, Politics and Civil Society). The Danish-German cluster was the most recently added and provides a renewed focus on the border region and its minorities. As of 2025, the Centre lists 15 researchers on its website; 7 senior researchers, 2 postdoctoral researchers and 6 researchers. The Centre employs a core staff and also hosts visiting

fellow A fellow is a title and form of address for distinguished, learned, or skilled individuals in academia, medicine, research, and industry. The exact meaning of the term differs in each field. In learned society, learned or professional society, p ...

s and visiting research associates. The Centre organizes its activities around three principal themes. It is concerned with the evaluation and further development of universal, regional, bilateral and national standards that may assist in consolidating democratic governance on the basis of ethnic diversity and human rights. In this context, ECMI is also particularly interested in the emerging convergence of standards between EU members and applicant states. A second area of involvement relates to implementation procedures and mechanisms for these diverse standards and the study of their effectiveness. At times, ECMI has been invited to consider standards implementation and majority-minority relations in particular states in cooperation with the government of that state and local groups. This has included cooperation with the

, for example producing reports on promoting ratification of the

European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages The European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages (ECRML) is a European treaty (CETS 148) adopted in 1992 under the auspices of the Council of Europe to protect and promote historical regional and minority languages in Europe. However, t ...

Publications

Over the years, the European Centre for Minority Issues has produced a number of Monographs, Reports, Working Papers and Issue Briefs, as well as the peer reviewed online

open access journal Open access (OA) is a set of principles and a range of practices through which nominally copyrightable publications are delivered to readers free of access charges or other barriers. With open access strictly defined (according to the 2001 de ...

, Journal on Ethnopolitics and Minority Issues in Europe (JEMIE), in addition to co-editorship (with EURAC Bozen) of the flagship publication European Yearbook of Minority Issues. The goal of this publication effort is to increase the awareness and dissemination of topics on minority issues, as well as to encourage further research in this field. Since 2019, the centre has published a scientific blog, the ECMI Minorities Blog, currently edited by Sergiusz Bober and Felix Schulte.

Events

Since 2011, the ECMI has organised an annual summer school on national minorities, moving location each year. Recent editions have taken place in Brussels (2018), Berlin (2019), Flensburg (2020 and 2021), the Basque Country (2022), Belgrade (2023), Bratislava (2024) and is set for Tallinn in 2025. Many editions of the summer school have been co-organised and co-financed with the Coppieters Foundation. The Centre also organises academic workshops and conferences in Flensburg and further afield.

References

External links