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The introduction of EU funding programmes in Greek cities has led to new forms of governance, mainly including the emergence of new institutions for partnerships and citizens' participation. Based on theories of Europeanization and on theories of re-scaling, this paper examines the magnitude and the direction of change in Greek urban policy. It suggests that the new institutions emerging from the Europeanization process face a number of constraints and contradictions emanating from the Greek political system. Empirical evidence shows that three endogenous factors of the Greek political system had impacted negatively upon these partnerships, favouring short-term institutionalization, unequal power relations inside the partnerships and lack of trust and commitment. These factors amount to the financial and political dependence of local authorities to the state, the weak civil society and, finally, the individualistic political culture. However, processes of policy learning and capacity building have also arisen, presenting new challenges for the transformation of urban policy.

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The article gives an introduction to the special issue about recent developments in metropolitan governance in Europe. The special issue seeks to contribute to a comparison of metropolitan governance with a particular emphasis on national policy initiatives. The presentation of recent developments in the six countries Germany, Italy, France, Poland, Spain and England follows a common framework. This framework is built on theories of rescaling and governance. All six countries have experienced dynamic changes in the scale and scope of metropolitan regionalism with different results. The contributions to the special issue show national policy initiatives as well as local case studies of metropolitan governance in terms of their history, structure and recent performance. The chapters show path-dependent developments in Germany, France and Spain as well as path-breaking changes in Poland, Italy and England. All in all, besides the fact that metropolitan regions are still high on the political agenda, a high degree of variation with regard to national policies remains. Zusammenfassung Der Beitrag leitet das Themenheft zu den jüngsten Entwicklungen in Metropolregionen und darauf bezogene Governance-Strategien in verschiedenen europäischen Staaten ein. Das Themenheft will insbesondere einen Beitrag zur vergleichenden Governance-Forschung leisten und legt einen Schwerpunkt auf nationale politische Initiativen, die Metropolregionen zum Gegenstand haben. Die Darstellung der gegenwärtigen Veränderungen in Deutschland, Italien, Frankreich, Polen, Spanien und England folgt einem einheitlichen Rahmen. Dieser bezieht sich auf Governance-Ansätze und Theorien der Reskalierung (rescaling) von Staatlichkeit. Alle sechs Staaten haben in dieser Hinsicht Veränderungen erlebt, die ganz unterschiedliche Resultate zeigen. Die Beiträge in diesem Heft gehen auf nationale Initiativen und Politikmuster ein, beschreiben aber auch Metropolregionen als Fallstudien. Während Deutschland, Frankreich und Spanien pfadabhängige Entwicklungen zeigen, weisen Polen, Italien und auch England markante Brüche auf. Es lässt sich schlussfolgern, dass Metropolregionen in allen Staaten auf der politischen Agenda bleiben, zugleich aber eine erhebliche Variation in den Strategien und Resultaten zu beobachten ist. Schlüsselwörter Metropolregionen · Europa · Governance · Re-Scaling

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