ABSTRACT
This chapter highlights the main distinctive dimension of cross-border cooperation initiatives with traditional regional policies in light of emerging proposal for a relational politics that is supposed to overcome territorialism and scalar hierarchies. For European institutions, cross-border cooperation is not only aimed at promoting the idea of a borderless Europe, but also that of a Europe of regions' where sub-national authorities increase their political role and international projection through paradiplomatic activities. More practically, in respect to traditional regional policies, cross-border cooperation implies new procedures as well as a different strategic orientation and a crucially different focus. Despite being limited in terms of scope and financial resources, cross-border cooperation has captured the attention of both scholars and policy makers. The binary and strict opposition between territorial and relational perspectives adopted in this chapter, is only illustrative, insofar as any policy domain is indeed based on a mixture of both imaginaries.
