Perdu
05-04-02, 12:51
Brussels 5/4/02 , by Eva Blässar
The thesis of Swedish lecturer Johan Eriksson at the university college 'Södertörns Högskola' near Stockholm compares the realities of minorities with self-government. He is especially interested in minorities that spread across borders, he therefore decided to compare the situation of the Sámi and the Basque people. He found that the Sámi, although numerically fewer and more scattered, had succeeded better in their self-governance than the Basque.
‘This was surprising, because the Sámis are much fewer, with a total of approximately 800,000 people compared to around 2 million Basques. But there are several reasons to this,’ Eriksson tells Eurolang, briefly outlining the situation in the states where the minorities are.
‘The borders are quite ‘open’ in the Nordic countries. Even though Norway for instance is not a member of the EU, it has always been easy to move between the countries and there has been a functioning Nordic cooperation for a long time. But when you look at Spain and France, the border between them didn’t really open up until Spain joined the EU in 1986,’ explains Eriksson. ‘The political structure is also very different in these two countries, with France being very centralised, whereas Spain gives great powers to its regions. And the Basque Country in Spain has the most powers of any of the Spanish regions.’
Johan Eriksson firmly believes that minorities can benefit from comparing their situation to other minorities in similar situations. Although positive the Sámi situation, and about the already existing project of the cross border Sámi Council, Johan Eriksson says that the Sámis need to cooperate more as ‘one’ people, instead of concentrating on detail questions in their own countries. He is particularly critical of the Sámis in Sweden:
‘There are problems in the Swedish Sámi Parliament that don’t exist in Norway and Finland,’ says Johan Eriksson. ‘Until only a few weeks ago, there was a resistance in the Swedish Sámi Parliament against cooperation in the Sámi Council. People felt that internal problems should be solved before joining a cross border cooperation.’
According to Johan Eriksson, the problems in Sweden origin from out-of-date legislation from the 19th century. 'Although reindeer keepers are numerically very few today, they have quite a lot of power, and this is the origin of controversies between reindeer keepers and non-reindeer keepers,' Eriksson explains. He thinks that the Sámis in Sweden must rise above their internal smaller fights and spend more energy on building a bigger cross border Sámi unity.
‘They will win strategically on this, because as long as they are internally divided, they will have no real power and won’t be taken seriously by the different governments,’ stresses Eriksson.
Johan Eriksson is currently editing a new book about the Sámi people, to which around twenty authors have contributed material. The book will be called ‘Cooperation and conflict in the North’, and is being published this spring. (EL)
www.eurolang.net
The thesis of Swedish lecturer Johan Eriksson at the university college 'Södertörns Högskola' near Stockholm compares the realities of minorities with self-government. He is especially interested in minorities that spread across borders, he therefore decided to compare the situation of the Sámi and the Basque people. He found that the Sámi, although numerically fewer and more scattered, had succeeded better in their self-governance than the Basque.
‘This was surprising, because the Sámis are much fewer, with a total of approximately 800,000 people compared to around 2 million Basques. But there are several reasons to this,’ Eriksson tells Eurolang, briefly outlining the situation in the states where the minorities are.
‘The borders are quite ‘open’ in the Nordic countries. Even though Norway for instance is not a member of the EU, it has always been easy to move between the countries and there has been a functioning Nordic cooperation for a long time. But when you look at Spain and France, the border between them didn’t really open up until Spain joined the EU in 1986,’ explains Eriksson. ‘The political structure is also very different in these two countries, with France being very centralised, whereas Spain gives great powers to its regions. And the Basque Country in Spain has the most powers of any of the Spanish regions.’
Johan Eriksson firmly believes that minorities can benefit from comparing their situation to other minorities in similar situations. Although positive the Sámi situation, and about the already existing project of the cross border Sámi Council, Johan Eriksson says that the Sámis need to cooperate more as ‘one’ people, instead of concentrating on detail questions in their own countries. He is particularly critical of the Sámis in Sweden:
‘There are problems in the Swedish Sámi Parliament that don’t exist in Norway and Finland,’ says Johan Eriksson. ‘Until only a few weeks ago, there was a resistance in the Swedish Sámi Parliament against cooperation in the Sámi Council. People felt that internal problems should be solved before joining a cross border cooperation.’
According to Johan Eriksson, the problems in Sweden origin from out-of-date legislation from the 19th century. 'Although reindeer keepers are numerically very few today, they have quite a lot of power, and this is the origin of controversies between reindeer keepers and non-reindeer keepers,' Eriksson explains. He thinks that the Sámis in Sweden must rise above their internal smaller fights and spend more energy on building a bigger cross border Sámi unity.
‘They will win strategically on this, because as long as they are internally divided, they will have no real power and won’t be taken seriously by the different governments,’ stresses Eriksson.
Johan Eriksson is currently editing a new book about the Sámi people, to which around twenty authors have contributed material. The book will be called ‘Cooperation and conflict in the North’, and is being published this spring. (EL)
www.eurolang.net