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Of the world's 6,000 to 9,000 Fourth World nations, some 120 exist in Europe (excluding Russia and Turkey as European). The vast majority of these nations can easily be considered indigenous, due to the fact that their existence dates from ancient times, long before the creation of the states that presently enclose them. Some of these nations (Euzkadi, Friesland, Samiland, etc.) existed within the same traditional homelands in which they are found today at the time of the first imperial expansion of Rome. Although these peoples may no longer live "tribal" or "primitive" lifestyles, their permanent occupation of territory permits their inclusion within the definition of indigenous peoples employed by the International Labor Organization (ILO). ILO Convention 169 of 1989 states: "peoples ... are regarded as indigenous on account of their descent from the populations which inhabited the country, or a geographical region to which the country belongs, at the time of conquest or coloni zation or the establishment of present state boundaries and who, irrespective of their legal status, retain some or all of their own social, economic, cultural and political institutions..." (emphasis added).
These nations have organized both locally and through pan-European organizations for a new dispensation based not on sovereign states but a federation of nations, regions, and city-states. This implies representation for nations and regions in European Union (EU) institutions and domestic autonomy consistent with stated EU goals. The entire geopolitical vision is being called the "Europe of Regions." The Maastricht Treaty on European Union, signed on 7 February 1992, established a Consultative Committee of the Regions, marking the first time Fourth World nations, city-states, and regions were admitted as partners in building a new Europe.
Europe now requires regional organization in all member states, and regional economic partnerships require a continental body as a facilitator. The second European Parliament of November 29, 1991 called on all member states that had not yet initiated the process of regionalization to make "the necessary institutional changes." Those seeking to empower the EU headquarters in Brussels have encouraged regionalism as enthusiastically as the regions themselves. And Fourth World nations and regions, for their part, stand behind a federal Europe more commonly than not.
These developments synchronize nationalist, regionalist and federalist organizations, resulting in a geopolitical squeeze on the state as the dominant form of European political organization. On one side are old nations, regions and city-states seeking more appropriate and less centralized solutions for particularly local problems. On the other side are the proponents of a federal Europe who argue that the individual state can no longer meet the problems posed by continental and global problems (e.g.: drugs, the arms trade, and pollution). The European Union would be large enough to wrestle with the big problems, while the region or nation would be appropriate to deal with the smaller ones. Middle scale problems would be handled by European Union commissions acting as facilitators between the nations, regions, or cities affected. Within this vision the state becomes a replicated middle tier of government.
As is the case with identifying indigenous peoples elsewhere, there is currently some controversy over how regions can or must be defined. Within Europe, regions cannot be defined specifically by language, which has become a useless category in an environment of wide linguistic diffusion (often the result of imposition). Culture, instead, is behind the geopolitics of nationalist assertions. Culture is not confined exclusively to particular traits of race, religion, language, or ethnicity, but rather refers to a variable combination of these factors, which permits peoples to differentiate themselves from their neighbors (especially oppressive neighbors). In contrast, from the states' perspective, the rationale for regional definitions should be provided by economic functionality, central place cities, and other kinds of top-down delimitations of boundaries.
The EU wants to define regions in conformity with the aspirations of the regions' peoples, and it will reject irrational proposals. This agenda may conflict with unitary states that would prefer to cross-cut cultural boundaries, rather than circumscribe the cultural identities that might support nationalist claims. The EU has demanded, for instance, that Sweden regionalize as a precondition to its entry in the European federation. Sweden has sought to create a "Southwest" Sweden that amalgamates historic Scania with neighboring regions. Scanian nationalists, for their part, have fought hard to have their national boundaries recognized as an independent area for both planning and representation within the European Parliament.
The bridge between the European Union and the Region is the principle of "subsidiarity," in which decisions are taken at the scale most appropriate to the problem. Article 3B of the Maastricht Treaty reads: "In areas which do not fall within its exclusive competence, the region shall take action in accordance with the principle of subsidiarity, only if and so far as the objectives of the proposed action cannot be sufficiently achieved by the member states and can therefore, by reason of scale or effects of the proposed action, be better achieved by the community."
Although the wording of Article 3B appears to favor the state as the ultimate repository of political power, there is substantial pressure to redefine subsidiarity so that it is understood to apply at all levels of government. This is the key demand of a large number of pan-European organizations promoting the Europe of Regions vision. These organizations include: the Federal Union of European Nationalities, the Assembly of European Regions, the Standing Conference on Local and Regional Authorities in Europe, the International Institute for Ethnic Group Rights and Regionalism, the European Regionalist Network, the Association of European Border Regions, and the International Union of Local Authorities. Such efforts date to at least 1957, the year of the founding of the Council of Europe's Standing Conference on Local and Regional Authorities in Europe (CLRAE). This body has passed some 250 resolutions to promote European democracy through regional organization. The Council of Europe now proposes that a "Senate of Regions" be part of the European Parliamentary system.
Fourth World Bulletin • July 1994
Copyright © 1996 by the Fourth World Center
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