A cosmopolitan analysis of the contradictions in EU regional and enlargement policies as drivers of Europeanization

Although much has been written on the process of Europeanization, there is a lack of research on its nuances and implications.

The academic literature to date focuses on debating the contradictions inherent within the politics of Europeanization without attempting to conceptualize what those contradictions mean in actual practice.

This paper draws upon the work of Beck and Grande to analyze the myriad of contradictions shaping all levels of European space. To do so, this paper examines concrete instances of cosmopolitan practice that actually promote the maintenance of the nation-state reality currently characterizing the European Union.

These examples show that, at the intersection of the subnational/supranational and supranational/national levels, contradictions are instrumentalized, creating bottom-up and top-down flows of power and influence between all European scales. The evidence presented in this paper indicates that these flows are unintended side-effects that drive Europeanization processes in a way that allows for the simultaneous promotion and regulation of European diversity.

This implies that carefully managed and instrumentalized contradictions are powerful engines of Europeanization that actively transform European governance.