The Europeanization of Regions as ‘Spaces for Politics’: A Research Agenda

Integrating regional development and planning into “spatial planning” in Finland: The untapped potential of the Kainuu experiment

“…And while regions never enjoyed any formal status at the EU level, a range of opportunities for regions to influence European politics opened up during the last decades, such as representation offices in Brussels, the Committee of the Regions or the European Parliament (Keating 2008;Tatham 2008). Whether regions are viewed as an element in the multi-level governance system created by the European Union (Hooghe and Marks 2003) or as independent "spaces for politics" characterised by their own power structures and logics of action for which the EU acts as a driver of change (Carter and Pasquier 2010), scholars agree that Europeanisation is amongst other things a regional phenomenon. " [T]here are numerous ways in which the EU remains highly important for regions, and in which regional politics plays a significant role in shaping the nature and direction of European integration" (Elias 2008, 487).…”

Political trust in France’s multi-level government

“…The EU dimension adds additional complexity: territorially, as there has been a gradual shift from a territorial narrative of strategic Europeanisation (whereby cities and regions use Europe to further their own ambitions and visions) to a practice of normative Europeanisation (whereby local and regional authorities are forced to adapt to a harsher EU-driven convergence) (Carter and Pasquier, 2010;Cole, et. al.…”

Regional Governance and Power in France

“…Each approach represents the balance of powers differently, and provides a rich perspective on the interactions between regional and European governance. However, we need to move beyond this binary debate if we are to fully grasp how the French regions have engaged with Europe (Carter and Pasquier 2010b). Analysing scale in terms of Europeanisation effectively means studying the conditions of construction of proactive regional governance centred on EU policies.…”

“…The analytical aim here is to grasp the full complexity of the interplay of scale between the dynamic of European integration and regionalisation. One approach to understanding how the processes of European integration and regional governance overlap in the relationship between centre and periphery in member states is to draw on accumulated knowledge from the vast literature on Europeanisation (Carter and Pasquier 2010b). Central to this research agenda is the attempt to understand the processes by which EU styles and ways of doing things, norms and beliefs, are incorporated into domestic political systems (Radaelli and Pasquier 2007) and become part of the logic governing how national governments act.…”

“…Via this major policy axe, the EU provides a wide range of resources to regional institutions and actors (Carter and Pasquier 2010b). However, actors' strategies with respect to European issues can vary widely and limit or increase the impact of norms depending on how they use them.…”