Challenges to multi-level governance: contradictions and conflicts in the Europeanisation of Italian regional policy

Article abstract:

Research on European integration is devoting increasing attention to the reconstruction of distinctive strategic attitudes and mediating capacities at the state level. Nevertheless, contradictions and conflicts in the Europeanisation of state policies, whilst crucial for understanding the dynamics of institutional change in a European multi-level polity, are still scarcely highlighted. This paper addresses this dimension based on a case study from Italy, a country in which Europeanisation fostered significant policy innovations in the second half of the 1990s. Programming for the 2000-2006 Structural Funds period in Objective 2 eligible regions highlights the intergovernmental constraints facing state actors in their efforts to mediate between distributive claims in the domestic arena and national interest representation in supranational arenas, as well as the influence exerted by contradictions in the Commission's policy styles and regulatory rationales in hampering a mediated convergence between contrasting policy aims .