Cross-Border Cooperation Along the EU’s External Frontiers

Abstract

The chapter focuses on cross‐border cooperation programmes between the EU border regions and their immediate neighbours. The chapter includes first a reflection on the role and the meaning of cross‐border cooperation in its historical development: from its application to the EU internal borders to its transfer towards non‐EU countries and to the European neighbourhood. The aim is to reflect on the changing significance of political borders in a Post‐Westaphalian “Europe of regions” and on the symbolic and material construction of the EU’s external frontiers. Secondly, the chapter presents a critical analysis of the narratives and the strategies of the cross-border cooperation initiatives launched within the ENP, in order to identify differences and tensions among different programmes and meso‐regions. The discussion of its cross‐border cooperation component, it is argued, is particularly useful for understanding the contradictions which arise from the implementation of the ENP, the variety of governance models by which the policy is implemented and the relevance and the function that borders and border regions have in the construction of a “wider Europe”. Moreover, the issues of Europeanization and transnational governance, and the attempts to strengthen territorial cohesion between the EU member States and the non‐EU neighbouring countries are discussed.