Author: Michael Breisky

This author has written 87 articles

1998: „Dealing with Minorities – a Challenge for Europe“

The Queen’s University of Belfast | The Institute of European Studies | European Liaison
Publications

Dealing with Minorities – a Challenge for Europe

 

by Michael Breisky, Ambassador of Austria to the Republic of Ireland

The heirs of multinational Empires

According to many historians, Europe’s Golden Age should be seen as the decades following the Congress of Vienna in 1814/15. Indeed, over thirty years of almost complete peace and no major wars for a whole century make this judgement understandable. If we look at the map of Europe drawn up at the Congress, we see there three major powers of multinational nature: they are the Empire of the Hapsburg Monarchy, Czarist Russia and the Ottoman Empire. Looking at today’s state of affairs we note that the Hapsburg Monarchy has disappeared and today’s Russia and Turkey have been greatly reduced in their territories.
What happened to the rest of the area belonging to these three major players? Well, their territories are now divided up by 23 sovereign countries, most of them new ones, and this number still leaves out Russia, Turkey and the new countries in the Caucasus and Central Asia. Four of the 23 – Finland, Austria, Greece and Italy – are already members of the EU and the remaining 19 aspire to follow sooner or later. (more…)

Continue Reading1998: „Dealing with Minorities – a Challenge for Europe“

Minderheiten-Politik in Europa – Beispiel Südtirol

Original-Version des Vortrags “Über den Umgang mit Minderheiten – eine europäische Herausforderung”, der auch auf die Lösung der Südtirolfrage eingeht::

 

The Queen’s University of Belfast | The Institute of European Studies | European Liaison
Publications

Dealing with Minorities – a Challenge for Europe

by Michael Breisky, Ambassador of Austria to the Republic of Ireland

The heirs of multinational Empires

According to many historians, Europe’s Golden Age should be seen as the decades following the Congress of Vienna in 1814/15. Indeed, over thirty years of almost complete peace and no major wars for a whole century make this judgement understandable. If we look at the map of Europe drawn up at the Congress, we see there three major powers of multinational nature: they are the Empire of the Hapsburg Monarchy, Czarist Russia and the Ottoman Empire. Looking at today’s state of affairs we note that the Hapsburg Monarchy has disappeared and today’s Russia and Turkey have been greatly reduced in their territories.
What happened to the rest of the area belonging to these three major players? Well, their territories are now divided up by 23 sovereign countries, most of them new ones, and this number still leaves out Russia, Turkey and the new countries in the Caucasus and Central Asia. Four of the 23 – Finland, Austria, Greece and Italy – are already members of the EU and the remaining 19 aspire to follow sooner or later. (more…)

Continue ReadingMinderheiten-Politik in Europa – Beispiel Südtirol

Learning to love Europe

Learning to love Europe

 

Essay by Michael Breisky, published:May 7, 2021

 

 

Abstract at the end of the essay

 

Dreaming of a strong Europe was yesterday. Not only has the commitment to a “never again war in Europe!” faded after the watershed year of 1989, but above it is the political homogeneity among the member states that has diminished in the course of EU enlargements. Because none of Europe’s external threats appear to be so dramatic as to make us close the ranks, there is no longer enough European solidarity to bridge the divides of difference. Thus, today, the elation of Sunday speeches on Europe is ground down as early as Monday morning by the travails of bureaucratic and antisocial everyday experience. (more…)

Continue ReadingLearning to love Europe