Reporting a bottom-up political process: Local perceptions of cross-border cooperation in the southern Portugal–Spain region

Abstract

Beyond the national political-territorial borders in Europe, the cross-regional dimension maintains an experimental democratic character. Entities developed to foster cross-border cooperation, such as working communities and Euroregions, are conceived as mechanisms of democratisation through the decentralisation of regional or/and local governmental bodies. However, scholarly debate suggests that the top-down policy-making process that is characteristic of cross-border programmes seems to cast doubt on the fulfilment of a European participatory democracy. In this respect, the cross-border cooperation process seems to contribute an added value to the dilemma of the European democratic deficit. The objective of this paper is to present a regional contribution to this debate through a study of local experts' perspectives on the implementation and impact of cross-border cooperation policies in the southern Portugal-Spain border region and the possibilities for local and social participation. This paper utilises data from two related investigations in the southern cross-border area between Portugal and Spain, including qualitative interviews, focus groups and content analysis of secondary data. The results reveal a positive attitude towards the recent regional top-down initiatives of European integration, although local experts question the potential for the inclusion of local perspectives in cross-border initiatives. In addition, during this period of economic crisis, political contradictions may be observed, and political initiatives related to the Spanish-Portuguese border may hamper the existing cross-border flows and dynamics of progressive integration. In this sense, local authorities play an important role as the nexus between transnational institutions of cross-border cooperation and the inhabitants of border regions.

Delimiting cross-border areas for policy implementation: a multi-factor proposal

“…The same criterion is used to define the North of Portugal-Galicia Euroregion, one of the oldest in Europe (Pires and Nunes, 2018). Indeed, the large majority of cross-border regions in Europe tend to be microregions, according to González-Gómez and Gualda (2014), and are delimited by border NUTS II in which local and regional actors commonly operate. On some occasions, however, there is a mixed use of both NUTS II and NUTS III administrative limits to encompass EU cross-border regions, as is the case of the German-Polish-Czech border region (see Knippschild, 2011).…”

The Socio-Cultural Factors in the Common Strategic Planning in European Territories: Principles for Sustainable Development Extracted from Borderlands

“… creation of strategies to improve the rural and urban life quality standards [12,19,47,48];  a more robust political engagement and transparency [18,49];  promote stakeholders' active involvementpublic participation [50,51,52];  invert on an economic system that meets the needs of its citizens [53,54];  promote employment that can rejuvenate its population [54], and at the same time increase the regional and local know-how [12,55];  no social discrimination and opportunities equality [56];  conservation and preservation of the border ecological systems -promote interactions between societies and the environment [57,58];  foster synergies that sustain areas with ecological and cultural heritage values [59].…”

Can differences in innovativeness between European cross-border regions be explained by factors impeding cross-border business interaction?

“…a horizontal approach [ 52 ]. Additionally, bottom-up approaches should be favored over top-down approaches to foster stakeholder integration [ 53 ]. Local, Euregional authorities play an important role in fostering both approaches.…”