ABSTRACT
The creation of the European Community must be considered in the context of postwar reconstruction and, being set up from the beginning as a supranational or, at the least, a plurinational organization, its interests were certainly not focused primarily on the subnational level. The European Community is an alliance of national states and, almost irrespective of the division of functions and powers within a member state, it is the national government which negotiates at the supranational level. Within the framework of the European policy-making process, it may seem paradoxical to stress the importance of subnational, regional, or local levels of administration of governments. There is a need for information going out from the subnational entities toward the Community, but the reverse is also true: the Community needs to know what the exact situation is in the various regions of its member states in order to design and implement correct regional policies.
