How national identification matters: the development of European identification among established ethnic minority groups

Based upon the data from qualitative studies of eight national minorities between the Baltic and the Danube, this article investigates the formation of European identification among members of the minority groups representing ‘split nations’ along the new eastern borders of the enlarged EU. The analysis reveals mechanisms of the formation of supranational identification by focusing on the relationships between subnational, national and European identifications to ascertain the degree of interconnectedness of these identification levels. These relationships are examined in the context of the potential impact of perceived ethnic conflict and utilitarian expectations of socio-economic and cultural gains from the process of European integration.