Palgrave Studies in European Union Politics Edited by: Michelle Egan, American University USA, Neill Nugent, Visiting Professor, College of Europe, Bruges and Honorary Professor, University of Salford, UK, and William Paterson OBE, University of Aston, UK. Editorial Board: Christopher Hill, Cambridge, UK, Simon Hix, London School of Economics, UK, Mark Pollack, Temple University, USA, Kalypso Nicolaïdis, Oxford UK, Morten Egeberg, University of Oslo, Norway, Amy Verdun, University of Victoria, Canada, Claudio M. Radaelli, University of Exeter, UK, Frank Schimmelfennig, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Switzerland Following on the sustained success of the acclaimed European Union Series, which essentially pub- lishes research-based textbooks, Palgrave Studies in European Union Politics publishes cutting-edge research-driven monographs. The remit of the series is broadly defined, both in terms of subject and academic discipline. All topics of significance concerning the nature and operation of the European Union potentially fall within the scope of the series. The series is multidisciplinary to reflect the growing importance of the EU as a political, economic and social phenomenon. Titles include: Carolyn Ban MANAGEMENT AND CULTURE IN AN ENLARGED EUROPEAN COMMISSION From Diversity to Unity? Gijs Jan Brandsma CONTROLLING COMITOLOGY Accountability in a Multi-Level System Edoardo Bressanelli EUROPARTIES AFTER ENLARGEMENT Organization, Ideology and Competition Ramona Coman, Thomas Kostera and Luca Tomini (editors) EUROPEANIZATION AND EUROPEAN INTEGRATION From Incremental to Structural Change Véronique Dimier THE INVENTION OF A EUROPEAN DEVELOPMENT AID BUREAUCRACY Recycling Empire Helene Dyrhauge EU RAILWAY POLICY-MAKING On Track? Theofanis Exadaktylos and Claudio M. Radaelli (editors) RESEARCH DESIGN IN EUROPEAN STUDIES Establishing Causality in Europeanization Stefan Gänzle and Kristine Kern (editors) A ‘MACRO-REGIONAL’ EUROPE IN THE MAKING Theoretical Approaches and Empirical Evidence Eli Gateva EUROPEAN UNION ENLARGEMENT CONDITIONALITY Basil Germond THE MARITIME DIMENSION OF EUROPEAN UNION SECURITY Seapower and the European Union Jack Hayward and Rüdiger Wurzel (editors) EUROPEAN DISUNION Between Sovereignty and Solidarity Wolfram Kaiser and Jan-Henrik Meyer (editors) SOCIETAL ACTORS IN EUROPEAN INTEGRATION Christian Kaunert and Sarah Leonard (editors) EUROPEAN SECURITY, TERRORISM AND INTELLIGENCE Tackling New Security Challenges in Europe Christian Kaunert and Kamil Zwolski THE EU AS A GLOBAL SECURITY ACTOR A Comprehensive Analysis beyond CFSP and JHA Marina Kolb THE EUROPEAN UNION AND THE COUNCIL OF EUROPE Finn Laursen (editor) DESIGNING THE EUROPEAN UNION From Paris to Lisbon Kennet Lynggaard, Ian Manners and Karl Löfgren RESEARCH METHODS IN EUROPEAN UNION STUDIES Dimitris Papadimitriou and Paul Copeland (editors) THE EU’S LISBON STRATEGY Evaluating Success, Understanding Failure David Phinnemore THE TREATY OF LISBON Origins and Negotiation Ariadna Ripoll Servent INSTITUTIONAL AND POLICY CHANGE IN THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT Claudia Sternberg THE STRUGGLE FOR EU LEGITIMACY Public Contestation, 1950–2005 Yves Tiberghien (editor) LEADERSHIP IN GLOBAL INSTITUTION BUILDING Minerva’s Rule Liubomir K. Topaloff POLITICAL PARTIES AND EUROSCEPTICISM Amy Verdun and Alfred Tovias (editors) MAPPING EUROPEAN ECONOMIC INTEGRATION Richard G. Whitman and Stefan Wolff (editors) THE EUROPEAN NEIGHBOURHOOD POLICY IN PERSPECTIVE Context, Implementation and Impact Sarah Wolff THE MEDITERRANEAN DIMENSION OF THE EUROPEAN UNION’S INTERNAL SECURITY Jan Wouters, Hans Bruyninckx, Sudeshna Basu and Simon Schunz (editors) THE EUROPEAN UNION AND MULTILATERAL GOVERNANCE Assessing EU Participation in United Nations Human Rights and Environmental Fora Ozge Zihnioglu EUROPEAN UNION CIVIL SOCIETY POLICY AND TURKEY A Bridge Too Far? Palgrave Studies in European Union Politics Series Standing Order ISBN 978–1–4039–9511–7 (hardback) and ISBN 978–1–4039–9512–4 (paperback) You can receive future titles in this series as they are published by placing a standing order. Please contact your bookseller or, in case of difficulty, write to us at the address below with your name and address, the title of the series and one of the ISBNs quoted above. Customer Services Department, Macmillan Distribution Ltd, Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS, UK. A ‘Macro-regional’ Europe in the Making Theoretical Approaches and Empirical Evidence Edited by Stefan Gänzle University of Agder, Norway Kristine Kern Leibniz Institute for Regional Development and Structural Planning, Germany, and University of Potsdam, Germany Introduction, selection and editorial matter © Stefan Gänzle and Kristine Kern 2016 Individual chapters © Respective authors 2016 Foreword © Dirk Ahner 2016 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2016 978-1-137-50971-0 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No portion of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, Saffron House, 6-10 Kirby Street, London EC1N 8TS. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. The authors have asserted their rights to be identified as the authors of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. First published 2016 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN Palgrave Macmillan in the UK is an imprint of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS. Palgrave Macmillan in the US is a division of St Martin’s Press LLC, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010. Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies and has companies and representatives throughout the world. Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries. ISBN 978-1-349-55247-4 ISBN 978-1-137-50972-7 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-1-137-50972-7 This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. Logging, pulping and manufacturing processes are expected to conform to the environmental regulations of the country of origin. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data A ‘macro-regional’ Europe in the making : theoretical approaches and empirical evidence / [edited by] Stefan Gänzle, University of Agder, Norway [and] Kristine Kern, Leibniz Institute for Regional Development and Structural Planning, Germany, and University of Potsdam, Germany. pages cm. — (Palgrave studies in European Union politics) Summary: “European Union (EU) macro-regional strategies, such as the ones composed for the Adriatic Ionian, Alpine, Baltic Sea and Danube regions, aim to improve transnational cooperation and coordination in a ‘territorially defined’ setting. These strategies propose an integrated framework for cooperation involving a wide range of EU member states, regional organisations, sub-national authorities, civil society organisations as well as non-EU partner countries. The contributors question whether macro-regional strategies are helpful instruments for improving actor-policy linkages at the European, member/ partner countries, and sub-national levels, and whether the objective of social, economic and territorial cohesion can be fulfilled through these strategies”— Provided by publisher. 1. Regionalism—European Union countries. 2. Regional planning—European Union countries. 3. Regionalism (International organization) I. Gänzle, Stefan, 1970– editor. II. Kern, Kristine, editor. JN34.5.M37 2015 341.242’2—dc23 2015018570 Contents List of Illustrations vii Foreword ix Dirk Ahner Acknowledgements xvi Notes on Contributors xviii List of Abbreviations xxii Part I Introduction 1 1 Macro-regions, ‘Macro-regionalization’ and Macro-regional Strategies in the European Union: Towards a New Form of European Governance? 3 Stefan Gänzle and Kristine Kern Part II Development of EU Macro-regional Strategies 23 2 From Subregionalism to Macro-regionalism in Europe and the European Union 25 Martin Dangerfield 3 Macro-regions and the European Union: The Role of Cohesion Policy 47 Irene McMaster and Arno van der Zwet Part III Theorizing Macro-regionalization and Macro-regional Strategies in Europe 73 4 Exploring European Union Macro-regional Strategies through the Lens of Multilevel Governance 75 Simona Piattoni 5 Macro-regional Strategies: Agents of Europeanization and Rescaling? 99 Dominic Stead, Franziska Sielker and Tobias Chilla vi Contents Part IV Governance Architecture and Impact of Macro-regional Strategies in Europe 121 6 The European Union Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region 123 Stefan Gänzle and Kristine Kern 7 The European Union Strategy for the Danube Region 145 Attila Ágh 8 The European Union Strategy for the Adriatic–Ionian Region 169 Battistina Cugusi and Andrea Stocchiero 9 The European Union Strategy for the Alpine Region 189 Jörg Balsiger 10 A North Sea Macro-region? Partnerships, Networking and Macro-regional Dimensions 215 Mike Danson 11 The Atlantic Arc: A Macro-region in the Making? 243 Mark Wise Index 269 List of Illustrations Figures 1.1 Overview of European macro-regions 7 6.1 Territorial coverage of the Baltic Sea macro-region 124 7.1 Territorial coverage of the Danube macro-region 146 8.1 Territorial coverage of the Adriatic–Ionian macro-region 171 9.1 Territorial coverage of the Alpine macro-region 190 10.1 Potential territorial coverage of the North Sea macro-region 218 11.1 Potential territorial coverage of the Atlantic Arc macro-region 244 11.2 Atlantic Arc Commission members (1995 and 2014) 254 11.3 Regions of the Atlantic Area (1997–2006 and 2007–2013) 256 Tables 1.1 Macro-regions: hybrids between territorial and functional regions 5 2.1 Subregional groupings in Europe 29 3.1 EUSBSR links to selected territorial cooperation programmes 56 3.2 The governance architecture of EU macro-regional strategies 64 5.1 Conceptualizations of Europeanization in social science studies 104 6.1 PAs and HAs of the EUSBSR (State: June 2015) 127 7.1 The Priority Areas of the EUSDR 154 vii viii List of Illustrations 8.1 EUSAIR Working Groups for the consultation phase 178 9.1 The proposed pillars of the EUSALP governance architecture 199 10.1 Comparison of priorities 233 11.1 State participation in Atlantic Area programmes: 1995–1999 and 2000–2006 (total number of projects in which countries participated, with number of times as project leader number shown in brackets) 259 11.2 Regional participation in Atlantic Area programmes: 1995–1999 and 2000–2006 (total number of projects in which regions participated, with number of times as project leader number shown in brackets) 260 11.3 Members of MERiFIC (Marine Energy in Far Peripheral and Island Communities) 264 Foreword It started with the macro-regional strategy for the Baltic Sea Region. I first learnt about it when the initiative was presented by a few Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) in a meeting with the European Commission’s Directorate General for Regional Development. The underlying idea was simple and persuasive: the countries and regions around the Baltic Sea face a number of common problems and chal- lenges which they can best address together. There have already been attempts in the past to improve the connections between the Baltic Sea countries through multilateral information, communication and exchange, and a number of institutions had been created to stimulate, support and coordinate these processes. However, apart from a limited number of smaller projects, most of them had not led to major action on the ground. In the view of the MEPs involved in the initiative, the time was ripe for a new step – a ‘qualitative jump’ – in the coopera- tion of the countries around the Baltic Sea. With the exception of the Russian territories, the Baltic Sea was now surrounded by EU members. A decade after the Eastern enlargement of the EU, the integration and the development of the new Member States in the area had proceeded well and they all could gain from joining forces to overcome problems of common interest like fighting the pollution of the sea, strengthening maritime safety, improving infrastructure networks and promoting the economic development of the area as a whole. Of course, there was the question of the Russian Baltic Sea regions. The view of the initiators was that Russia should be informed and asso- ciated through the existing institutional structures, in particular the so-called ‘Northern Dimension’, but that the strategy should be an ‘EU Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region (EUSBSR)’. The main focus of the strategy should be on concrete, common (inte- grated, joint or coordinated) action on the ground in order to mobilise synergies between what was undertaken in terms of development in the different countries and regions, and to realise economies of scale. Indeed, the lack of common action was seen as the major shortcoming of earlier attempts at cooperation in the area. This new cooperation was seen as one between Member States and/ or regions around the Baltic Sea, not as an EU initiative to be proposed by the Commission and embedded in EU regulations. However, the ix