political-legal typology of European minorities
In terms of their legal status there are communities with equal status (state-constituting communities, [e.g. Flemish, Swiss cantons, Hungarians in Slovenia, Swedes in Finland], communities with cultural and/or language group rights [e.g. the Sami in Finland, the Swedish-Speaking Finns on the Åland Islands, the Germans in South Tyrol, the Frisians in Denmark]; systems guaranteeing individual rights [e.g., France, Italy, Romania, Slovakia]; policies that suppress acquired rights [e.g., Ukraine, Estonia); discriminatory minority-community situations (e.g., the Roma in several countries].
Based on their political-legal status we can speak of communities with territorial self-government [in Switzerland, Spain, Belgium, Italy]; minorities with personal self-government [e.g. the Swedes in Finland, the Parliament of Lapland, Hungarians in Slovenia, Croatia and Serbia], communities with an independent ethnic party [e.g. Hungarians in Slovakia, Romania, Ukraine and Serbia, Serbs in Croatia and in Bosnia-Herzegovina, the Turks in Bulgaria], communities enforcing their interests within the majority parties in the country concerned [through politicians taking on the community’s affairs], and groups with a cultural advocacy organisation.