The aim of the project is to identify best practices of minority protection, while at the same time studying, under which conditions such practices can function and under which circumstances the application of certain measures is not recommendable. This goal will be reached by comparatively studying the real situation of autochthonous minorities in certain key areas, taking into consideration the respective social, cultural, historical, political and economic context. The situation in the following countries will be studied: Austria, Italy, Slovenia, Hungary, Slovakia and Romania.