ABSTRACT
Following the passage of the Single European Act in 1986, the day-to-day work of the European Commission increasingly involved contact with the sub-national levels of government of the member states. Such levels of government exhibited a considerable diversity in their structure, finances and functions (Batley and Stoker 1991; Goldsmith 1992; Norton 1994), but forms of regional government were present widely throughout the Union and were by far the most common intermediary in EU politics between the supra-national and local levels. Nowhere was the impact of the new dynamics of European integration felt more than in Britain, but in terms of sub-national representation, Britain was the odd one out. Elected local government had to take on the intermediary role in the absence of an elected regional level. Consequently, in considering the developments in British sub-national politics arising from the changing European relationship in the late 1980s and early to mid 1990s, this chapter will chart the growth of British local government activity upon the EU stage, highlighting some of the particular developments which this growth revealed through four case studies. This account of local authority activity in an EU context provides insights into local and regional dimensions of politics and policy-making, which offers a qualified view of the development of new regional capacity The chapter concludes by considering some likely further trends.
