News from ECMI InfoChannel

Please note that following the partial lockdown measures adopted by the German authorities and the recommendation to work remotely, the ECMI Headquarters will be closed to external guests for the duration of the lockdown.

The majority of the employees will work remotely including the Secretariat.

You can reach us at info@ecmi.de or contact the employees directly via email.

Amid all the adjustments in our private and professional lives brought about by the pandemic in the past year, the ECMI has gone through its own significant changes. One of the most important ones was a change in the leadership. A new ECMI era began in March last year when Prof. Vello Pettai became the ECMI Director. On the occasion of his one year in office, Prof. Pettai writes a few words to reflect on this period.

The ECMI supports Prof. Dr. John Siegel (Universität Potsdam) and Prof. Dr. Markus Seyfried (Hochschule für Polizei und öffentliche Verwaltung NRW) in their evaluation of the Schleswig-Holstein law on the promotion of the national minorities.

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Das ECMI unterstützt Prof. Dr. John Siegel (Universität Potsdam) und Prof. Dr. Markus Seyfried (Hochschule für Polizei und öffentliche Verwaltung NRW) bei ihrer Evaluation des Gesetzes zur Stärkung der Nationalen Minderheiten in Schleswig-Holstein.

Next deadline for submissions has been extended to 15 January 2021.

The Journal on Ethnopolitics and Minority Issues in Europe (JEMIE) welcomes research articles, commentaries, and book reviews from practitioners, academics and students on all aspects of ethnopolitics and minority issues,

The present text summarises the findings of the series "Minority language media and the COVID-19 pandemic" which consists of expert interviews looking at the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on minority language media across Europe. The individual interviews in this series have been posted as 10 different pieces since July, featuring expert scholars and practitioners who focus on one specific linguistic sphere. This post provides an overview and comparative analysis of the series, which was divided into six different themes discussed for each case.  

ENTAN – European Non-Territorial Autonomy Network is a COST Action aimed at examining the concept of non-territorial autonomy (NTA).

The Network, which the ECMI is a part of, has recently published two calls for applications: Call for ‘Short Term Scientific Missions’ (STSM) and Call for Inclusiveness Target Countries (ITC) conference grant applications.

In our tenth and final expert interview in the series on minority language media and the effects of COVID-19 pandemic, we return to the British Isles for an in-depth analysis of Scottish Gaelic. Dr. Douglas Chalmers, Senior Lecturer in Media and Journalism at Glasgow Caledonian University, provides a thorough overview of the situation for that linguistic sphere, in particular by focusing on the public service broadcasters BBC Alba and Radio nan Gàidheal.

The European Centre for Minority Issues (ECMI) is currently looking for interns to assist remotely with the project Autonomy Arrangements in the World.

Our ninth interview on the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on minority language media, features an interview with Rudolf Urban outlining the situation for the German minority in Poland. As editor-in-chief of the Wochenblatt.pl weekly newspaper, Rudolf is well-placed to provide insight into the situation in this linguistic sphere which also has radio, TV and a sizeable online presence. This interview highlights the new practices which the newspaper has had to adapt to, as well as outlining how the activities of the German minority had shifted to be mostly online.

On Wednesday, 30 October 2020, the ECMI Director Vello Pettai and Senior Researcher Ljubica Djordjević paid a visit to the State Parliament of Schleswig-Holstein. The ECMI was invited to participate in the meeting of the Committee for European Affairs (Committee for Federal and European Affairs, Cooperation in the Baltic Sea and North Sea Area, and Minorities).

Returning to a non-kin state setting for our eighth interview in the ongoing series, Onno Falkena details the case of Frisian in the Netherlands. A seasoned journalist for regional public broadcaster Omrop Fryslân in the province of Fryslân / Friesland, Onno is well-positioned to provide first-hand experience of the situation during the lockdown months earlier this year.

From 8-11 September 2020, ENTAN – The European Non-Territorial Autonomy Network (www.entan.org) will hold its first Training School in Flensburg and Sønderborg, co-organized by the Centre of Border Region Studies of the University of Southern Denmark, the European Centre for Minority Issues (ECMI) and the Interdisciplinary Centre for European Studies at the Europa-Universität Flensburg.