Networks and Network Governance across European Borders

Abstract

Nowhere have sub-state levels of government been empowered more than in the European Union. Devolution, regionalisation and the implementation requirements for EU Structural Funds sparked discourse of a ‘Europe of the regions’ or ‘multi-level governance’ in the 1990s (Keating, 1998; Hooghe and Marks, 2001). Whilst relations between the central and sub-state institutions have undoubtedly changed, so have relations between sub-state regions and municipalities across state borders. Particularly since the end of communism in Central and Eastern Europe, formal institutions have been built across the EU’s internal and external borders. (Anderson et al., 2003; Perkmann, 2003) This includes the management structures for implementing EU territorial cooperation programmes (currently Interreg V), the introduction of European Groupings of Territorial Cooperation (EGTC) or cross-border associations of municipalities, so-called ‘Euroregions’. Furthermore, non-formalised institutions and cross-border conventions have also emerged at numerous European borders. This panel takes the establishment of such cross-border institutions as its starting point and examines how these institutions are filled with life in the implementation of cross-border initiatives. The panel will address the following questions: has formal institution-building led to cross-border networking among actors below the level of the formal institution, e.g. between municipalities on both sides of a border? What spatial patterns of networking can be identified? Are there any hubs of cross-border activity, and what are the implications of this (e.g. in terms of ‘crowding out’ other actors)? How do the formal structures and networking promote trust-building across borders? What role do available funds play in this? Through a series of case studies, the panel will address the broader questions of how cross-border institutions act as enabling structures for local actors and whether their activities can be seen as new forms of territorial governance that, in turn, feed up into policy decisions taken at higher levels of government. The papers will employ a variety of methodological approaches such as network analysis or qualitative interviews with key actors in cross-border networks.

Title	Details
Governance networks under the Carpathian Convention	View Paper Details
End user networks in the implementation of the Polish-German ‘small projects funds’	View Paper Details
European Groupings of Territorial Cooperation in cross-border governance in Central and Eastern Europe: do they make a difference?	View Paper Details