Europe 2020 is the growth agenda of the EU and part of the European Semester. On the European level, objectives are installed for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth. Most of these objectives fall within the competences of the Member States. In highly decentralized Member States, Europe 2020 objectives even fall within subnational competences. How do these subnational entities cope with the Europe 2020 strategy? Do they organize differently and what can explain the variation?
In this paper I first present a strategy to analyze subnational governance structures that deal with Europe 2020, based on social network data and focused on governmental organization and coordination mechanisms. Variation between regions and policy domains concerning subnational governance structures will be examined by variables drawn from rational and sociological institutionalism. Empirically, I will compare the governance structures in the policy domains education, poverty and energy in the regions of Flanders, Catalonia and Scotland.
Keywords: Europe 2020, regions, governance structures, coordination mechanisms, Network analysis
