Renaissance in the West, 1972–99

Abstract

The 1970s would see extraordinary and positive changes come for most of western Europe’s regional and cultural minorities. For this there were three reasons. First, there was the process of European integration. Starting with six countries — Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg and the Netherlands — in 1951, the European Union today consists of 15 countries with the accessions of Britain, Denmark and Ireland in 1973, Greece in 1979, Spain and Portugal in 1986 and Austria, Finland and Sweden in 1995.