EU Cohesion Policy: A Tool for Constructive Neighbourhood Relationships via Sub-national Actors. Lessons from the Eastward Enlargement
EU Cohesion Policy: A Tool for Constructive Neighbourhood Relationships via Sub-national Actors. Lessons from the Eastward Enlargement

Summary/Abstract: The mobilisation of regional and local authorities in the European political arena is a multidimensional and evolving phenomenon which is particularly remarkable in the area of European Union (EU) cohesion policy. As a reflection of this commitment within the internal sphere, the role of local and regional actors has also increasingly affected the EU’s external actions. Despite the thinness of the acquis communautaire in this policy sector, various instruments of cohesion policy – namely cross-border cooperation programmes – have been used in the framework of the EU’s Eastward enlargement and gradually transferred to the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP). This paper aims at illustrating how the practice of participation by subnational entities has been transferred from EU cohesion policy to the framework of the policy of cooperation with neighbouring states. In particular the attention will be focused on the Eastern Partnership’s (EaP) mechanisms introduced within the ENP. In the conclusions the paper will reflect upon the strengths and weaknesses of the EU’s commitment to reinforcing the role of sub-state entities, as well as providing a series of observations with the aim of preparing the ground for further research and suggesting some guidelines to render tools of cohesion policy adopted in the EaP even more effective in building constructive relationships between the EU and its new Eastern neighbours.

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