“…Within many western European states, the creation or strengthening of regional political institutions since the 1970s further empowered regional actors to develop new strategies for securing financial aid and accessing institutional arenas beyond the state. Together, the processes of European integration and de-centralization provided new incentives for regional actors-a heterogeneous group encompassing, among others, regional and local authorities, sectoral regional associations and regionalist and minority nationalist parties-to participate in European decision making (Hooghe and Keating, 1994;Hooghe, 1995). For some, this meant establishing a direct presence in Brussels; for others, it also meant creating new trans-regional partnerships and engaging in para-diplomacy in order to lobby effectively for regional interests within the EU (Weyand, 1996;Aldecoa and Keating, 1999;Bartolini, 2005: 264-271).…”