European integration has broadened and deepened all regionsā ability to participate in European politics. Its scope and depth, however, vary and greatly depend on regionsā socio-political, socio-economic and socio-cultural characteristics. The sub-national level of some EU membersā governments, such as the German LƤnder, as well as the Belgian and French regions, has since the beginning of the European project become increasingly institutionalised. These regions now have the political authority to design their own European policies in addition to participating in the programmes offered by the European Commissionās Directorate General for Regional Policy, amongst others. Yet, what are the objectives of their European policies? Do regions aim to foster merely economic development or also European social integration and identity building? Can economic collaboration and integration occur without the supportive framework of social integration? Or does a European Union, which focuses on economic integration, fail to take along the citizens of Europe and eventually head straight towards members voting to leave the European Union?
Based on the decades-long history of the European project, extensive research on the effect of European integration on the role and involvement of regional governments has been conducted. Also research on conceptualising and measuring levels of European identity across the European Union has been conducted in order to assess whether citizens accept or reject a European identity and gauge whether they support European integration. However, it has not yet been researched whether representatives of regional governments intend to develop social cohesion through fostering a European identity as part of their European engagement ; whether European identity develops as a natural by-product of collaboration; or whether identity building does not feature at all in regionsā European engagement ābe it due to ambivalence or even an anti-EU stance. In the absence of such evidence-based research, it cannot be conclusively explained whether the 98 regionsā European policies are indeed aiming to bring the citizens of Europe closer together; whether their European engagement is of a purely economic nature, distinct from cultivating a European identity; or whether the regions may be taking steps toward leaving the European Union. With public funding increasingly supporting regional European policies , more clarity about their objectives is required. The current gap in both political science research and literature places the spotlight on the question: What are the scope and objectives of regionsā European policies and what role does European identity play in them? This book addresses this research question and sheds new light on the pro-EU and anti-EU positions held within the comparative EU regionsā European policies and programmes.
Due to the diversity of the European Union Member States and their respective regions, there is great variation in regionsā ability, scope and objectives to engage in European politics. Indeed, there are 98 NUTS 1 (Nomenclature of Territorial Units of Statistics, the European Commissionās geocode standard for sub-national levels) regions within the 28 EU Member States, offering such variation. The European engagement of EU regions in some cases is limited to managing EU funds from the Cohesion Policy, which deliver economic growth within the region; whereas other regions have the authority and capacity to design their own European policy and influence the European policy designed by their national government. Thus, European engagement in the context of this book encompasses all European political activity of a regional government and regional government agenciesāwhether they have designed this policy themselves or are participating in a top-down European policy or programme, as designed by their national government or supra-national institution such as the European Union. Regionsā European policies typically include the management of EU funding for infrastructure or European cooperation within both public and private sectors. Regions developing their own European policies typically engage in European-wide best-practice sharing networks across a range of policy areas relevant to them; developing political partnerships with governments of other EU regions; identifying cooperation opportunities between both public and private sectors across the European Union to foster innovation, competitiveness and regional economic growth; or developing educational partnerships and exchanges for school / university students and lifelong learning participants. Thereby, the objectives of regionsā European policies can be purely economic development related, or also include a European-wide social integration and identity-building dimension. Regions can thereby be actors within the European Union and take pro-EU or anti-EU positions.
Whilst the overarching objective of regionsā European engagement is regional socio-economic cohesion and development, it leaves to the imagination of both policy and political decision makers whether the priority to pursue is the strengthening of their regional economies and social integration in the European Union, or whether in the tradition of the general Liberal Intergovernmentalist position on European integration, European policies and programmes are to strengthen economic cooperation exclusively. With more than a third of the EU budget allocated for the Unionās regional policy (Cohesion Policy 2007ā2013) and an increasing number of regional governments pursuing and managing European opportunities, it becomes necessary to assess why some regions participate more than others, and whether, indeed, the core objective of EU regionsā European engagement is to foster economic development and integration exclusively, or whether the core objective also includes a sociological dimension of fostering European identity and furthering European integration. And if the answer is affirmative, why do some political actors deliberately cultivate and reinforce a European identity through their regionsā European engagement , whilst others pointedly block the concept of a European identity from their European portfolio?
Learning from EU regionsā case studies, this book will provide new insights into the missing links that marked decades of discussions in academic and political circles about the evolution and the making of both EU regionsā European policies and programmes and the fostering of a European identity, as well as a more complete understanding of the evolution and objectives of EU regionsā European policies and programmes. In doing so, the book will present both the range and scope of EU regionsā European engagement, be it self-designed and / or EU-designed European policies and programmes implemented by the respective regions. Based on interviews with regional political elites and civil servants, perceptions of the link between European identity and the regionās European engagement will be characterised and analysed. Both policy and perceptions analyses will highlight the positions taken, be they in favour of the European Union or againstāand what their consequences are. Due to the great variation amongst regional characteristics across the European Union, regional idiosyncrasies will be identified and investigated in order to better understand and properly appreciate how they both challenge and foster a regionās European engagement. The book will also analyse the value-added of European regional networks, which were originally designed to dually bridge the gap between regional idiosyncrasies and facilitate European engagement and cooperation amongst EU regions.
This book provides a comprehensive study on the state of regionsā European engagement , whether European identity is an intended component found within their policies and programmes, and how in turn this shapes and impacts the scope of their European engagement. This research empirically answers the research question: What are the scope and objectives of regionsā European policies and what role does European identity play in them? It also discusses how the British case study to a large extent explains an anti-EU and pro-Brexit positionāand sends warning signals to other regions heading down a similar path.
This chapter will serve as a road map, drawing together political science research, which has provided the context and boundaries of the research question of this book, and it will identify and clarify this bookās new contributions.
Researchers have used both theoretical and empirical approaches to explain the variation in both scope and objectives of regionsā European engagement. Theoretical debates have focused on the contrasting views of the objectives of European integration and the European engagement pursued by political actors. Primarily framing the debate have been the two grand theories posited by representatives of the Neo-Functionalism and Liberal Intergovernmentalism schools; the latter setting economic boundaries to their engagement and the former suggesting spill-overs from economic to political and social objectives. Contributions to the debate have also been made by scholars focusing on the pursuit of political objectives and the impact and influence of Multi-Level Governance. Its protagonists traditionally focus on the various levels of national (including subnational) and supra-national governments involved in European policies and programmes. Thus, theory-based explanations suggest that objectives of Europea...