Chapter 2. Europe and Statelessness It is clear that statelessness in Europe is caused by a multitude of factors, which relate to (recent) factual and political developments and new crises or threats to nationality, as well as to gaps and issues with current nationality laws and registration of citizenship. All of the general categories of causes of statelessness can thus be found in Europe: technical causes as well as causes relating to discrimination or arbitrary deprivation can be found. The largest numbers of stateless people in Europe, however, remain stateless due to the state dissolution that took place after the end of the Cold War. 2.8. CONCLUSION This chapter aimed to demonstrate the broader context in which the regional European instruments studied in this research need to be placed. What causes were there for statelessness occurring, and how and why did states respond to it, in particular through law-making? The picture of Europe that has been sketched above demonstrates how the continent’s history has unfolded in this regard, with its own particularities and practices, which were – at the same time – intertwined with major developments globally. It demonstrated that reasons for statelessness occurring in such ways that it demanded a response in law from states were often closely related to different historical events. Already in the 19th century, nationality and registration became more important, paving the way towards exclusion based on these elements. World War I and its aftermath, however, made statelessness appear on a large scale in Europe. The LoN, founded after the war, took some first steps in recognizing and addressing the issue, but addressed only technical root causes and not the more practical ones, which eventually caused further problems. Displacement and denationalization in the context of World War II further deepened and added to the existing statelessness. The atrocities of war and the complications that ensued from this did not only result in a focus on human rights and the adoption of legal instruments on this; but also translated into concern for statelessness, with the UN Statelessness Conventions being adopted in 1954 and 1961. One of the ways in which Europe in particular responded to the devastation of war, was with the establishment of cooperation mechanisms (or the predecessor thereof) that are studied further in the chapters that follow. Legal progress on nationality and statelessness matters in the context of the CoE and the predecessors of the EU was relatively low after World War II and during the Cold War though. The period immediately after the end of the Cold War presented more development with the CoE adopting distinct legal instruments on nationality and statelessness, and – later – the EU introducing the notion of EU citizenship. The exploration in this chapter demonstrated the relevance of these two European cooperation mechanisms. This is evident when considering their areas of focus and work: the CoE and its focus on human rights and the EU based on cooperation, inclusion and free movement and even the development of an own EU citizenship. Intersentia 89