Policy Entrepreneurship and Multilevel Governance: A Comparative Study of European Cross-Border Regions

Abstract

The author addresses the recent proliferation of cross-border regions, or ‘Euroregions’, in Europe. It is argued that EU multilevel governance patterns generate opportunities for entrepreneurial policy organisations to attract policy tasks and resources. This is conceptualised as policy entrepreneurship and applied to a comparative case-study analysis of three Euroregions: EUREGIO (Germany – Netherlands), Viadrina (Poland – Germany), and Tyrol Euroregion (Austria – Italy). The analysis focuses on the ability of these initiatives to establish themselves as autonomous organisations. It finds considerable variation across the cases in this respect. Following on from this, the paper shows how administrative and institutional environments in different EU member states affect the ability of Euroregions to engage in policy entrepreneurship. It is concluded that it is premature to perceive Euroregions as new types of regional territorial entities; rather, they are part of the policy-innovation scenario enabled by EU multilevel governance.