The article puts forward the term self-colonisation in order to characterise the process of concepts, symbolic hierarchies and Eurocentric values internalisation by communities/nations that have “surrendered” to Europe/Occident cultural power, without having been invaded or become colonies. Kiossev takes Eastern Europe as his example, but the term could be applied to other “peripheral” European countries (i.e. in the Mediterranean arch). This internalisation is linked to local élites, which play their disseminating role through “soft channels” (cultural, nonviolent). This process is triggered by a hypothetical cultural asymmetry that engenders a necessity of permanent updating and an import of models and institutions, and looks for the recognition by an assumed centre, crucial for self-identification. (O.F.L)