Looking on the European integration of the Western Balkans and the New Neighborhood Policy of the EU, territory still matters in ethnic conflicts. Ethnic identity formation remains connected to territorial claims and institution-building efforts in post-conflict societies within and outside Europe. At the same time “transnational” territorial cooperation within the European Union and beyond its borders remains connected with territories and their development.

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The political discourse on the integration of new minorities into European societies is no longer focused in the end on claims for belonging of territory, but on social cohesion and political participation not only for citizens, but also long-term residents. From this perspective, religion and the integration of religious, in particular Muslim, communities into the secularized European societies, but also how to overcome the vicious circle of discrimination in the access to education and the labor market and the ensuing trap of socio-economic marginalization, ghettoization and cultural deprivation of new “structural” minorities will play a more prominent role in the future research activities of the Institute, especially in autonomous regions with a strong territorial identity.

The analysis of legal standard setting, the comparative analysis of standard-setting dynamics and the implementation of legal instruments of minority protection in the broad sense elaborated in the last years, will remain an important activity as a valuable resource also for consulting, training and post-graduate teaching activities.

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