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The appearance of national minorities as international legal issue and its further unfolding was also connected to 19th Century Eastern-Europe. While unified national states had been formed in Western-Europe by the 19th century, the Eastern-European small nationalities existed only as parts of three multi-national countries: The Tsardom of Russia, the Habsburg Monarchy, and the Ottoman Empire. The agenda of nationalities appeared several times during the 19th century in these three multinational empires. In Austria, as the result of the revolutions of spring of 1848, the first fundamental law of 25 April 1848 provided the integrity of every national "tribes" and their mother tongue. In 1867 further allowances had to be made towards nationalities. The fundamental law settled the national issue, which stated that "national tribes of the state were equal, and each tribe had infrangible right to keep and cultivate their nationality and mother tongue." Later, during the Great War, each warfaring government and the representatives of those nations, willing to create a national state, put great efforts to the national minority issues. Plans were created to solve these national-minority issues rightfully, mostly in the territory of the Habsburg Monarchy. The multi-national Habsburg Empire was stuck together not only by a dynasty, ruling over the nations and partly by the common past of hundreds of years, but the historical fact that there had never been any ethnical civil war, forced assimilation or genocide in the territory of the Monarchy. The ethnical composition of Monarchy's national families was way too complex that one would think based on the official population statistics.

The concept of region is many-sided and diverse (Esterbauer, 1989) The same word is used for a variety of arrangements in a variety of political areas. Region is a sub-unit, the territorial segment of a unit. The territory denoted by the word can only be defined exactly as a function of the whole of which it is part. In reference to the global community of states, a region may comprise several states. In this sense it refers to a smaller area of inter-state relations; in international law operating through regional organisations a region may be interpreted as a division within the community of states (Cf. Charter of the United Nations, 1991). In reference to a state, region is an administrative unit within the state. Within the "Europe of the regions", regions are territorial units which, on the one hand, exist within a member state, and, on the other hand, extend beyond local areas (Hrbek, 1988).

The problem of European identity is often analysed from the perspective of the European unity. From the historical point of view, it's completely understandable, however, this examination aspect often leads only to resignative results.We are living in the globalisation era, where the individual, the society as well as the states function in a so-called network system, which can often result in depersonalisation. Nonetheless, loyalty, continuity and the absence of permanent unity enter an appearance. It is often heard as a blame that Europeans are unemotional about "their Europe", but that is the statement, which could be resolved with the European identity, with its history.

Regions and regionalism are rather flourishing in Europe. But what do regionalism and the expression "Europe of regions" exactly mean? There are three approaches to the question: first, the concept of cross-border interregionality between the Member States of the European Union; second, the effort to make regions the basic building blocks of European integration instead of states; and finally, the objective to introduce a three-tier structure to the European Union which would extend the already existing tiers of the European Union and the Member States with a third one, the territorial units within nation-states. The first approach (interregional cooperation) has long been adopted; the second approach (the vision of Europe made up of regions instead of states) is rather utopian. The third one is subject to fierce debates: a three-tier European Union with European, nation-state and regional levels. Although the form, motives and causes of movements promoting regionalism may vary greatly, 1 their purpose is the same for autonomous, federalist and separatist movements alike: to relativise the existing central nation-state. Thus, advancing European integration has become a natural ally for them as – from their perspective – it meant the disfunctionality of traditional nation-states. A supranational and therefore multinational and multicultural community promises much more room for development than a classic nation-state.

A régiók nem csak a közelmúltban jelentek meg az európai politika színpadán, mint önálló szereplők, tevékenységüket már évtizedek óta jegyzik. Ennek középpontjában mindenekelőtt a régiók határokon átnyúló együttműködése áll, ezt egészítették ki a régiók transznacionális megállapodásaival, amelyek arra szolgáltak, hogy a nemzetállamok kormányaival valamint a nemzetközi szervezetekkel, különösképpen az Európa Tanáccsal és az Európai Közösséggel szemben érdekképviseletüket gyakorolják. Az utóbbi időben a régiók egyre energikusabban és követelőbben hívták fel magukra a figyelmet. Tevékenységük súlypontja jelenleg nyilvánvalóan az EU és az integrációs folyamatokon belül helyezkedik el. A régiók mint az EU-kontextus politikai tényezői igen sokrétű tevékenységet mutatnak fel, amelyek az "Európa régiói" megjelölésben foglalhatók össze. Az elnevezésből, mint sokszor használatos szlogenből azonban hiányzik egy egyértelmű és ugyanakkor közös megegyezéssel alapuló, elfogadott tartalom. Regions appeared as autonomous entities on the European political stage not only in recent years. The activity of regions has been recorded for decades. It focuses above all on the cross-border cooperation of regions, and was supplemented by the trans-national agreements of regions, which served to practice their representation against the governments of nation states as well as international organisations, in particular, the European Council and the European Community. Most recently, regions have drawn attention to their presence more and more and when doing so have found increasing attention. Their centre of activity is now obviously located within the EU and the integration processes. Regions as the political factors of the EU context show a wide range of activities that can be summarized under the label of 'the regions of Europe'. The name, as a frequently used slogan, is lacking a clear and at the same time jointly agreed, accepted content. Regions and regionalism are rather flourishing in Europe. But what do regionalism and the expression Europe of regions exactly mean? There are many approaches to the question, the concept of cross-border interregionality between the Member States of the European Union, or the effort to make regions the basic building blocks of European integration instead of states, and the objective to introduce a three-tier structure to the European Union which would extend the already existing tiers of the European Union and the Member States with a third one, the territorial units within nation states. The first approach has long been adopted, the second approach is rather utopian. The third one is subject to fierce debates: a three-tier European Union with European, nation state and regional levels.

Nem kérdés, hogy Európa egy radikális átalakuláson megy keresztül. Egyszerre figyelhetjük meg Európában a kistérségi egységek és regionális mozgalmak reneszánszát. Az államok szubnacionális egységeiről való politikai, gazdasági és kulturális gondolkodás, valamint cselekvés túlnyomórészt Európában tört utat magának. A regionális mozgalmak nagyobb autonómiát követeltek hatalmi szférájuk és befolyási területük számára, részint erőszakkal, egészen egyes területek különválásáig. Földrajzi, etikai, nyelvi, vallási, kulturális, történelmi vagy gazdasági dimenziók különböző vonatkozási pontjait választották ki, hogy egy ily módon elhatárolt területet régióként jelöljenek. Azok a közös jellemzők, melyeknek egy régió lakói birtokában vannak, megteremtik a speciális egység érzését és a regionális identitást. Nagy jelentőséggel bír az Európai Unión belüli régiók rendkívül széles palettája a szubnacionális egységek jogi státuszát, kompetenciáit, valamint pénzügyi forrásait és ezáltal politikai minőségét illetően. Subnational mobilisation was one of the most outstanding features of the European internal policy of the 1990s. The phenomenon is reflected by two, mutually reinforcing factors. On the one hand, the 1988 reform of the Structural Funds and several provisions and principles of TEU created new opportunities for regions to become involved in the European politics; on the other hand, processes and theoretical debates towards the territorial decentralisation of power within Member States, as well as the openness and activism of regions in the area of structural and cohesion policy expressed more and more pronounced needs of enforcement of their rights. The opportunities and demands, the "Europe of the regions", the concept of a "Three-tier Europe" together with the EU becoming a multi-level governance system collectively constitute the conditionality of subnational mobilisation. The phenomenon can be summarised as follows: the regions within the state and at Community level, by the concurrent use of institutional and informal tools, are increasingly becoming involved and are increasingly becoming involved and are increasingly shaping the EU institutions and their decision-making processes.