Katharina Crepaz investigates how two-dimensional ('top-down' and 'bottom-up') Europeanization processes affect minority communities by using a comparative approach, encompassing cases from both ¿old" (pre-2004) and ¿new" EU member- states. The author thereby bridges two dichotomies made in the literature so far, and outlines how Europeanization takes place in non-acquis areas. She does so by looking at four very different case studies: the German-speaking minority in South Tyrol/Italy, the Bretons in France, the German minority in Silesia/Poland, and the Italian minority in Istria/Croatia.