Regionalism and multi-level politics: participation of regional actors in European projects

Abstract

Political and administrative processes in Europe have changed dramatically due to deepening European integration, strengthening decentralization in the EU member states, involvement of regions in decision-making at the EU level. Aсcording to supporters of the multi-level governance (MLG), this concept, which used to have predominantly hierarchical administrative logic, is now getting political dimension being transformed into multi-level policy, and non-governmental actors are increasingly involved in policy-making process. At the same time, the regions of the EU member states show very high variability in terms of their involvement in multi-level interactions, being influenced by the power of regionalist parties, along with other factors. The analysis carried out by the method of multiple OLS regression on the empirical data of the regional actors’ participation in the implementation of INTERREG projects («European Territorial Cooperation») has verified this hypothesis. The relationships between the power of regionalist parties and involvement of the regions in multi-level interactions is most clearly traced in the countries of «old» Europe, where the power of regionalist parties affects the intensity of regional actors participation in INTERREG approximately to the same extent as the «resourcefulness» of the regions and their borderline position. In the regions of «new» Europe, the power of regionalist parties is not a statistically significant factor, and, along with the «resourcefulness» and borderline position of the regions, their lobbying opportunities in the bodies of the European Union come to the foreground.