The questions that this issue addresses cut across some of the most challenging dilemmas of the European Union. The emergence of the European supra-state was presumed to signify an end to modernity. In the new postmodern world the nation state was supposed to fade due to increased cosmopolitanism, international rules to prevail over narrowly defi ned territorial ones, global issues to overshadow local petty interest. In this respect, the Sixth Framework Project “EUROREG” reported in this issue surveys a crucial test area of this postmodern attempt: how Europe and European accession affects the dynamics of the relations between ethnic minorities and majorities, between minorities-inhabited regions and the nation states they are part of. The papers collected in this issue, which represent only a fraction of those produced in the project show unambiguously that, while Europe creates a better quality framework for relations between minorities and majorities, Europe does not fundamentally alter the behavior of actors. The game played is still undoubtedly modern, as its main stakes are identity and sovereignty. Actors learn to use postmodern Europe and its neutral policies to advance their very modern causes; states, regions and minorities are equal in this respect. The ball might be different, the game is the same. Europe is not the brave new world of utopists, but still the old modern world in new, better clothes. Fortunately.