ABSTRACT
This chapter analysis the key processes of relevance connected to the constitutional debate, as well as some of the interconnected policy processes that have emerged on the European agenda that are of relevance for the regional level. Cooperation and dialogue with the regional level actors is promoted in the European Union (EU) context when it can find solutions to service delivery and territorial cohesion, but mostly only in an instrumental sense, and thus not necessarily as an essential element of democratic accountability or legitimacy as such. The Structural Funds and the policies that they impact are thus an important area of further study when it comes to analyzing the potential role of regional level actors in the new European governance structure. The European White Paper on European Governance from 2001 has become an important frame of reference in debate on governance as opposed to government. The popularity of governance' is understandable for two reasons: its imprecision and its political instrumentalism.
