Insular Regions and European Integration: Corsica and the Åland Islands Compared Helsinki and Mariehamn, Åland Islands (Finland) 25 to 30 August 1998 John Loughlin and Farimah Daftary ECMI Report # 5 November 1999 EUROPEAN CENTRE FOR MINORITY ISSUES (ECMI) Schiffbrücke 12 (Kompagnietor Building) D-24939 Flensburg Germany +49-(0)461-14 14 9-0 fax +49-(0)461-14 14 9-19 e-mail:
[email protected] internet: http://www.ecmi.de CONTENTS Preface and Acknowledgements 3 Introduction 6 Maps 8 Historical Background to Corsica and to the Åland Islands 13 Corsica 13 The Åland Islands 19 The Seminar 22 Helsinki Preamble to the Seminar: the Situation of Linguistic Minorities in Finland 22 Introductory Session: General Considerations on the Question of Autonomy 24 Session One: Models of Regional Socio-Economic Development appropriate for Island Regions 26 Session Two: The European Dimension: Island Representation and Inter-Regional Cooperation 29 Session Three: Language, Culture and Identity 33 Session Four: Regional Institutions for the 21st Century – Reconciling Political Culture and Political Structure 37 Final Session: Corsica and the Åland Islands Compared 42 Conclusions 46 Appendices 47 Appendix 1: List of Participants 48 Appendix 2: Political Groups in Corsica at the 1998 and 1999 Regional Elections 52 Appendix 3: A Genealogy of Corsican Nationalist Movements and Clandestine Groups 57 Appendix 4: The Statute of Åland 60 Appendix 5: Åland and the EU 66 Appendix 6: Selected Bibliography 70 2 PREFACE AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The “Corsican Question” is one whose particular features set it apart from most other examples of “minority issues” in Europe. The presence of these features entails one major consequence, namely, that analysts of the Corsican question, as well as citizens involved in the political debate, often find it hard to escape the fetters of a fixed set of references.