Franziska Sielker

Europeanizing territoriality—towards soft spaces?

This paper explores the coexistence of relational and territorial spaces—soft spaces—through the experiences of EU integration and territorialization. First, we seek a better understanding of EU integration through an engagement with the literature and research on soft spaces. We propose that EU integration is best understood as involving an interplay between territorial and relational understandings and approaches that vary through time, a variation that can be categorized as involving pooled territoriality, supraterritoriality, and nonterritoriality. Second, we seek to add to the current research and literature on soft spaces by focusing upon the changing character of soft spaces and their temporalities. We approach these two dimensions through an exploration of two ex post case studies, the development of which typically shows different stages of softening, hardening, and of differing degrees of Europeanization. With the focus on Europeanization, the paper concludes with three findings: the new spaces of European territoriality are characterized by, first, temporal dynamics, second, their parallel existence with ‘hard’ spaces, and, finally, they can be employed as a political tool.

A stakeholder-based EU territorial cooperation: the example of European macro-regions

ABSTRACT In the last decade, European regional policy has faced considerable changes typified by the introduction of the place-based approach with the Barca Report. One of the most prominent changes in European territorial cooperation (ETC), supposedly reflecting this shift, is the development of macro-regions, the dynamic of which are only just beginning to influence policy-making. This paper aims to analyse contemporary styles of ETC under the place-based narrative by identifying characteristics of macro-regional cooperation. Drawing on empirical studies in the Danube, Alpine and North Sea regions, the paper shows that stakeholders’ primary rationale for getting involved is the opportunity for agenda-setting, and the intention to evoke changes in debates and in other stakeholders’ influence. The main argument the paper follows is that macro-regional experiences reveal a crucial dependence on relatively strong stakeholders. With the term ‘stakeholder-based’, the paper draws attention to the importance of stakeholder settings in these new forms of ETC. The paper concludes that conceptualizations of approaches to European regional policies would need to acknowledge the regional differences of stakeholder settings more explicitly, and highlights the need to better acknowledge the implications for political transparency and relative power in agenda-setting.

Governance der EU Energie(außen)politik und ihr Beitrag zur Energiewende

Seit dem Vertrag von Lissabon (2009) hat die EU eine primarrechtlich verankerte Gestaltungsaufgabe in der Energie- und Klimapolitik. In diesem Kontext strebt die EU an, den Energiebinnenmarkt nachhaltig zu transformieren und zugleich ihre energiepolitischen Normen und Regeln auch in Drittstaaten zu etablieren. Der Beitrag analysiert am Beispiel der Energie(ausen)politik der EU in der Donauregion, wie die Europaische Union die Nachhaltigkeitsziele in der Energiepolitik jenseits ihrer Grenzen umzusetzen versucht. Dabei werden am Beispiel der von der EU initiierten Energiegemeinschaft ein hierarchischer und am Beispiel der EU-Strategie fur den Donauraum ein nicht-hierarchischer Governance-Ansatz auf ihren Beitrag zur Energiewende hin analysiert. Der Artikel kommt zu dem Schluss, dass sich die beiden Ansatze in der Donauregion erganzen. Die besondere regionale Konstellation an der EU-Ausengrenze, als eine Region mit zentralen transeuropaischen Energieleitungen und diversen Energiezielen, stellt die Kooperation im Energiesektor vor besondere Herausforderungen. Wahrend der hierarchische Ansatz verbindliche energiepolitische Rahmenbedingungen setzt, Ziele benennt und eine vertragliche Basis fur die Kooperation schafft, legt der nicht-hierarchische Ansatz die Basis fur gemeinsame Umsetzungsaktivitaten.

New approaches in European governance? Perspectives of stakeholders in the Danube macro-region

Macro-regional cooperation in the EU are networks that use the horizontal and vertical dimension of the multilevel governance system to influence both strategic decision-making as well as implementation activities. Drawing on an analysis of expert interviews in the Danube Region the paper scrutinizes stakeholders’ shared views towards expectations, challenges and added values, and thereby seeks to explain why a trend towards macro-regions arises and for what reasons stakeholders are getting involved. The analysis of the drivers for stakeholders’ commitment in the EU Danube Region Strategy shows that new governance arrangements need to be adjustable to different contexts, allow for negotiation and new network creation whilst simultaneously offering the political ability to act. The evidence presented suggests that multilevel governance in the EU is becoming increasingly complex, embracing more and different types of cooperation, with soft characteristics as crucial elements.

Macro-regional Strategies, Cohesion Policy and Regional Cooperation in the European Union : Towards a Research Agenda

Since 2009, the European Union has developed strategies for the Baltic Sea, Danube, Adriatic-Ionian and Alpine macro-regions. These macro-regional strategies represent a new tool of European Union governance that seeks to combine the community’s territorial cooperation and cohesion policy repertoire with intergovernmental ‘regional cooperation’ involving European Union member and partner countries. By establishing comprehensive governance architectures for cross-sectoral and trans-boundary policy coordination in areas such as transport infrastructure and environmental protection, macro-regional strategies seek to mobilise European Union member and non-member states alike in promoting and harmonising territorial and trans-governmental cooperation. Both the macro-regional strategies and the macro-regions themselves have been met with increasing interest across several disciplines, including geography, regional planning, political science and public administration, triggering questions and debates on issues such as their impacts on existing practices of territorial cooperation and their relation to previously established forms of regional cooperation. Authored by scholars based in the above-mentioned fields of study, this contribution seeks to take stock of research on the subject to date, reflect on conceptual starting points and highlight new directions for future research in the political sciences.

Macro-regional Strategies: Agents of Europeanization and Rescaling?

The launch of the first EU macro-regional strategy in the Baltic Sea Region in 2009 marked the start of a number of similar initiatives across Europe. According to various commentators in the planning and geography disciplines, the new macro-regional strategies signal the redefinition of regional policy rationales, new scales of policy intervention, new actor constellations and variable geometries of governance (see e.g. Allmendinger et al., 2014; Antola, 2009; Bialiasiewicz et al., 2013; Faludi, 2012; Stead, 2011). In short, they argue that the appearance of these new strategies has created new policy arenas which exist either between or alongside formal institutions and which arise from cooperation across various spatial scales, and involve different policy sectors and actor constellations.

Regionen als ‚Soft Spaces‘? Das neue EU-Instrument der makroregionalen Strategien

Der vorliegende Artikel betrachtet eine neue Form der Regionalisierung, die mit der Etablierung von Makroregionen in der EU zu beobachten ist. Am Beispiel des Donauraums wird die Entstehung dieser grosraumigen Kooperationsraume reflektiert, die zunehmend Basis fur verschiedene raumrelevante Politikfelder und transnationale Projekte sind. Auf Basis einer Einordnung von makroregionalen Strategien im Kontext der europaischen Raumentwicklungspolitik wird das Konzept der ‚soft spaces‘ naher dargelegt. Dieses wird sodann als konzeptioneller Rahmen zur Erklarung der aktuellen Dynamik der ‚Makro-Regionalisierung‘ herangezogen.

The Rise of Macro-Regions in Europe

The term “macro-region” is a political construct, mainly discussed in EU policy documents. The definition of a macro-region is deliberately vague and fuzzy, allowing for a diverse set up of governance arrangements and topics to be addressed. We identify three main trajectories of the rise of macro-regions in Europe: the development of European integration and an increasing focus on Cohesion and Regional policies; the changed geopolitical situation following European enlargements in 2004 and 2007; and the pre-existence of different forms of cooperation within these perimeters. Macro-regional cooperation has not initially generated new EU institutions, new EU legislation or new EU funding, but despite or maybe because of these constraints, macro-regions have attained considerable political commitment. A committee of representatives of the partner countries steers the overall progress of the macro-regions and acts as the decision-making body to guide their general direction. The potential avenues for the future of macro-regions are not clear.