The Europeanisation of Local Government

TLDR

Western European intergovernmental relations have shifted since the 1970s, with the European Community driving local governments to focus on Brussels, form cross‑country networks, and increasingly bypass national authorities, a trend reinforced by the Maastricht Treaty’s subsidiarity principle. This review examines how the European Community has altered the relationships between central governments and lower‑level tiers in Western Europe, focusing on its impact on regional and sub‑regional local governments. Analysis.

Abstract

The year 1992 provides an excellent occasion to review trends in intergovernmental relations in Western Europe and particularly within the European Community. This review is designed to highlight some of the main changes taking place in the relationships between central governments and lower-level tiers of government in the main Western European countries and to focus upon the impact which the European Community (EC) has had on the behaviour of local governments at the regional and sub-regional levels . The essence of the argument is that changes at the supranational level, and especially at the EC level, are bringing and will continue to bring about an increasing focus by sub-national governments on Brussels. Additionally, these changes are leading local governments to form partnerships with their counterparts in other EC countries, creating an increasing number of general and specific networks able to lobby Brussels directly, leading their members to by-pass national governments. The subsidiarity principle at the heart of the Maastricht Treaty reinforces these trends-one reason for its unpopularity in certain parts of the EC . Throughout Europe, and indeed throughout the world, there are a series of changes taking place which impact on regional and local governments, forcing them to adapt their behaviour and to change their relationship with other levels of government, vertically and horizontally. Academic identification of these changes dates almost uniformally from the early 1970s . Analysis