The Subnational Level's Attempts to Influence EU Policy
2019 (English)Independent thesis Advanced level (degree of Master (Two Years)), 20 credits / 30 HE credits
Student thesis
Abstract [en]
Micro-regions have gained an increasing awareness of their potential in global politics, an illogical development that have yet to be explained. In this study, we hypothesize that there is a trend where regions attempt to lobby EU-policy, and explore the role of regions, and their channels to Brussels: how they look today, and how they have changed over time.
In this exploration, we conducted a comparative case study where the Swedish regions’ channels to Brussels were compared over time by a theoretical framework built on new regionalism ideas. To collect data, we interviewed representation office officials, and supported this data with a content analysis. We then compared our results to a similar study from 2007.
We found that the representation offices today lobby as a daily activity, and that monitoring is often emphasized to be pro-active in policy influencing. Money is still experienced as the prime logic for regional representation in Brussels, but possibilities for financial gain may incentive regional interest to contribute to the EU policy framework. The representation offices favor the European Commission as a channel, but this depends on where in the process the office enters, while informal networks are given an increased value for several reasons.
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Malmö universitet/Kultur och samhälle , 2019. , p. 88
Keywords [en]
Multi-level Governance, Lobbying EU-policy, Regionalization, Europeanization, Informal Regionalism, New Regionalism
National Category
Social Sciences
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:mau:diva-21047Local ID: 28859OAI: oai:DiVA.org:mau-21047DiVA, id: diva2:1480951
Educational program
KS GPS Political Science - Global Politics
Supervisors
Examiners
2020-10-272020-10-27Bibliographically approved