“Learning from each other and exchanging experiences is essential to advancing the right to self-determination in Europe” Advocates Xabier Macias

At the Peoples and Sovereignty in the European Union school, held in Bilbao in November 2025, Xabier Macias, Vice President of the Coppieters Foundation, highlighted the importance of bringing together experts, think tanks and civil society organisations working to advance self-government and national recognition across Europe.

A Europe where millions seek recognition and greater self-government

In his remarks, Macias recalled that nearly 200 million people in the European Union live in territories where demands for autonomy, self-government or sovereignty remain active.

This diversity of national aspirations calls for shared spaces of debate and dialogue where communities can compare their experiences, strategies, and challenges.

Such exchanges, he argued, are essential to strengthening democratic claims and ensuring they are transposed in broader European and international arenas.

Macias underlined that the Peoples and Sovereignty in the European Union school is designed to do precisely this: bring together actors to reflect on self-determination so they can advance joint work, enhance international visibility, and build bridges across movements.

“It is very important to exchange experiences to tackle these challenges, to advance the right to self-determination, to advance the international visibility of these nations and their movements,” he stated.

Self-determination as a tool to reinforce democracy

“This is the case because the most important push for direct democracy in Europe comes after self-determination claims in places like Catalonia or Scotland, not only that, in other cases like Flanders, Corsica, Faroe Island or Greenland self-determination movements have championed better governance, devolution and recognition. While achieving self-determination is a complex process, we observe how a renewed claim for sovereignty and recognition emphasizes the need to create the conditions to ensure the materialization of such a democratic process.” He added.

Finally, Xabier Macias explains that Coppieters Foundation has reported on and studied some of the policies that shape this processes, (1) in the one hand phenomena like Para diplomacy to advocate for international recognition and (2) on the other studying the legal cases in international and European law that support self-determination from an institutional and legal perspective to improve conflict resolution tools based on mutual recognition of all the peoples of Europe.

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The Coppieters Foundation is financially supported by the European Parliament. The European Parliament is not liable for the content of the conferences, events or the opinions of the authors of our publications.

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