ABSTRACT
European integration has significantly altered the traditional links between social relations and political territoriality. We are witnessing a reterritorialization of European social life where social relations are partially uncoupled from nationstate territories and stretch beyond state borders, even as the latter continue to remain key territorial units for the organization of space. At the cross-border level, the renegotiation of the relationships between Westphalian territoriality and social life has found its foremost expression in cross-border region building. Cross-border regions spanning two or more national borderlands (also known as Euroregions) have been the preferred vehicles to institutionalize cross-border cooperation in Europe. They are means of territorially organizing and formalizing previously unstructured cross-border regional and local spatial interaction. This is achieved by building multilevel networks of institutions that stretch across state borders and exert governance prerogatives over cross-border territories. The end goal is to overcome the traditionally divisive role of nation-state borders in order to allow the integration of border regions with shared interests (Perkmann and Sum 2002).
