State consolidation and national identity

After the fall of the Berlin Wall, the new democracies of central and eastern Europe had to face a number of challenges on their way to democracy. One of the common problems was to build a multi-ethnic state where the interests of different minorities are taken into account without compromising the unity of the country. The presentations and discussions in the framework of the Chisinau Conference focused on the variety of approaches to the multi-ethnic state and on the different challenges that democracies, both new and well established, will have to face in the twenty-first century. In this context, issues such as federalism, autonomy and linguistic diversity were given special focus.