ABSTRACT
The chapter provides an overview of several of the regional organizations in North-Eastern Europe by briefly scrutinizing their activities and objectives. It outlines the concept of the Northern Dimension (ND), which covers many issue areas such as economic cooperation, transport infrastructure, environment health and so on. The European Union (EU) has an important impact on the individual countries, but also on regional and sub-regional integration and cooperation processes and cross-border cooperation with non-EU-member states. The chapter examines the concept of 'network governance' is utilized as a theoretical framework for explaining the different forms of cooperation in the area and their interplay. It attempts to analyze whether and to what extent EU efforts have been successful and efficient and whether concerning the cooperation with regional actors any form of network governance has been achieved. There are a few indications that the EU has not fully exploited the potential for cooperation in the region and for building a system of network governance.
