Cross-border Policy in Europe: Implementing INTERREG III-A, France-Spain

Abstract:
It is well known that increased European integration has encouraged new forms of governing within the member states. This paper focuses on the process of Europeanization by comparing the implementation of the cross-border co-operation programme INTERREG in three separate cases. This article questions the capacity of the European Commission to encourage regional and sub-regional actors to co-operate and form multi-level networks that increase territorial development through state borders. This paper argues that the local adaptation of Commission incentives depends both on the degree to which border actors are satisfied with national policies and on actors' capacity to consolidate pro-European institutional arrangements.