The Role Of Regions And Sub National Actors In Europe

The essays gathered in this collection examine the involvement of self-governing sub-national and regional actors in the law and policy-making of the European Union. State power is today exercised in the context of the complex institutional environment of the EU. But what of regions and sub-national actors? Are their interests adequately represented; can they advance them or can they,at least, protect them from unwitting or calculated damage? This book surveys the broad questions of law and political science and investigates the contribution of the EU's Committee of the Regions and also 'bottom-up' initiatives launched by the regions themselves. Given that much regional autonomy has been hard won, one would suppose that the centralising influence flowing from the EU's intrusion into the domestic settlement would be treated with extreme caution by the regions. Moreover, among the Member States there is great diversity in the patterns of political organisation adopted to cope with the tension between the centralisation of power and respect for local autonomy. Case studies including Spain, Germany and Finland reveal that there is no single consistent historical narrative. States change, as the UK's recent experience illustrates. The book offers findings that are interesting at a general level in investigating patterns of multi-level governance, but is also rich in case-specific information.

The essays gathered in this collection examine the involvement of self-governing sub-national and regional actors in the law and policy-making of the European Union.

Regions have increasingly broken ground in the European sphere. For decades, they have been subject to forces both influencing them from above (regionalisation), as well as from below (regionalism). In the European Union, the regions and their actors have mainly manifested themselves via EU Regional Policy. Besides a closer look at the rationales behind this trend (e.g. multi-level governance) and the changes in the decision-making process, three case regions have thoroughly been addressed - Latvia, Scotland, and Saxony. This dissertation highlights the pitfalls, the possibilities, and the position of regions and its actors, in both the domestic and the European setting, in a clear and structured way. Dissertation. (Series: European Regions / Regionen in Europa - Vol. 4)

This book explores the growing role of cities and regions as sub-national actors in shaping global governance. Far from being merely carried along by global forces, cities have become active players in making and maintaining the networks and connections that give shape to contemporary globalization. Exploring examples from Europe, North America and beyond, the authors reconcile the two separate, yet complimentary, theoretical and analytical lenses adopted by Urban Studies and International Relations, as they address the nature of ‘cities’ and ‘internationality’. The authors challenge academic debate that is reluctant to cross disciplinary boundaries and thus offer more relevant answers to the new phenomenon of international city action, and how it weakens the traditional prerogative of the state as primary actor in the international realm. Conclusions focus on how this new internationality opens opportunities for cities and regions but also contains potential pitfalls that can constrain policy options and challenge the legitimacy of policy making at all scales.

The role of regions in the European Union has been frequently debated since the 1980s. This comprehensive book provides a thorough overview of the issue from a variety of perspectives, analysing regional governance and territorial dynamics in the EU and its member states. Focusing on the implications of the democratisation–regionalisation nexus, it argues that a ‘Europe with the regions’ may promote good governance and ameliorate the democratic deficits of the EU.

A fresh alternative to traditional state-centred analyses of the process of European integration is presented in this book. World-renowned scholars analyze the state in terms of its component parts and clearly show the interaction of subnational, national and supranational actors in the emerging European polity. This `multi-level politics′ approach offers a powerful lens through which to view the future course of European integration. The contributors′ empirical exploration of areas such as regional governance, social policy and social movements underpins their broad conceptual and theoretical framework providing significant new insight into European politics.

How can one convince potent nation-states to put their sovereignty at risk in common European policies? EU cohesion policy, now one-third of the EU budget, provides such a puzzle. Until 1988 the European Commission shared out money to national governments with few strings attached. Since the reform of 1988, national governments are required to negotiate with the Commission and regional authorities on how to use the money. Has this European-wide policy eroded national sovereignty in favour of a stronger role for the Commission and more power for Europe's regions? The first part of the book probes into the policy dynamics at the European level. In the second part, eight country studies evaluate the impact of uniform EU policy on territorial relations by comparing policy making before and after the reform. The concluding section explains persistent variation in EU cohesion decision making and implementation.

This book is the result of a research project carried out for the Committee of the Regions and analyses the 'state of play' of democratic practice at the subnational level in all of the European Member states. Its initial hypothesis was that liberal democracy is closely associated with the rise of the nation state in the 19th century. The nation state, however, has been significantly changing under the impact of various forces including globalization and regionalization, internal reforms of the public administration system such as privatization and deregulation, and the emergence of regions and local authorities as actors in their own rights. these changes pose challenges for the practice of democracy and, in particular, for its expression at the regional and local level. The book deals with the theoretical implications of these changes in terms of the changing nature of the state and new regionalism. However, one of the key findings is that there is no one uniform meaning of democracy across member states and there are variations even within a single state depending on whether the national or subnational levels are considered. Each country chapter gives the historical and philosophical background to the concept of democracy in each country. There is also an exposition of the institutional expression of democracy at the different levels. With regard to the practice of democracy at the subnational level, the role of pressure groups and policy networks is examined as well as the role of political parties. There is a survey of critiques of subnational democracy. Finally, there is a survey of innovative approaches to improving regional and local democracy through a variety of mechanisms and reforms as ways of responding to the challenge and opportunities facing it today

The question of how to organize and manage sustainable regional development has recently come to the fore in many places across the industrialized countries of Central and Western Europe, and especially within the European Union (EU). This book looks at the home-grown natural, economic and social, socio-political, political and administrative conditions which policy makers face, while also being subjected to numerous external influences. Political actors in less important EU regions attempt to create and implement strategies of regional development in the context of regional policy-making by EU institutions, national governments and the globalization process.

SUBNATIONAL OR REGIONAL PARLIAMENTS with legislative competences are increasingly active in EU affairs and are recognized as POTENTIAL ACTORS IN THE EU'S MULTI-LEVEL SYSTEM BY EU LAW. However, studies on the territorial effects of European integration and on the Europeanization of parliaments as well as parliamentarism have so far disregarded this group of parliaments. In the existing theoretical concepts of 'multi-level parliamentarism' subnational parliaments do not have a place until now. The book addresses this theoretical and empirical gap. Referring TO STUDIES ON PARLIAMENTARISM, FEDERALISM, AND EUROPEANIZATION the contributions discuss how to include subnational parliaments in the existing research. A total of 74 subnational parliaments from eight member states is affected by the new system, which allows them to participate in the so-called Early Warning Mechanism of subsidiarity control. The situation in six EU member states is analyzed in detail. The country chapters illustrate and analyze how subnational parliaments in the federal member states (Austria, Belgium, Germany) and in the decentralized/devolved ones (Great Britain, Italy, Spain) functionally adapt to the new opportunity structure and discuss the repercussions on legislative-executive relations as well as on interparliamentary relations. With contributions from Gabriele Abels; Katrin Auel and Martin Große Hüttman; Peter Bursens, Frederic Maes and Matthias Vileyn; Peter Bußjäger; Josep-María Castellà Andreu and Mario Kölling; Ben Crum, Annegret Eppler; John Erik Fossum; Anna-Lena Högenauer; Sabine Kropp; Robert Ladrech; Erik Miklin; Matteo Nicolini; Werner J. Patzelt; Tapio Raunio; Werner Reutter; Gerhard Stahl and Bert Kuby; Gracia Vara Arribas.