ABSTRACT
It can be argued that EU inspired sub-national partnerships are a motor of regionalisation, stimulated by the opportunities of the late 1980s and early 1990s. The argument is straightforward and is made up of the following elements. First, the process of European integration brought sub-national bodies and European bodies closer together through the former's desire for funds and the latter's quest for legitimacy. Second, the allocation of the EU's structural funds on a regional basis served to unite regional actors in formal partnerships and create a coalition of regional interests. Third, incipient regionalism found its expression specifically in local authority-based partnerships which took on a European dimension through working together on the preparation of regional lobbying strategies and setting up regional offices in Brussels. Fourth, given the small size of the Commission bureaucracy, it was administratively convenient to deal with territorial aggregations of representative bodies where there was demonstrable political and geographical cohesion. Fifth, the experience of the bodies working together on European lobbying fed into greater regional political cohesion. Finally, political leaders felt better able to work together on European matters than on many other potentially geographically competitive issues. Overall, it may be suggested that the coming together of these various forces led to the emergence of a European-based regionalism and that laggard regions tended to follow those with more proactive strategies and structures.
