Abstract
The article is dedicated to the study of integration strategies of the institutions of cross-border cooperation, with the case study of Euregio Meuse-Rhine coming under scrutiny. The main questions addressed here are: what determines the perception by these institutions of the power structure of the regionalization process, in what way this perception manifests itself and how it shapes the power status of the Euregio with respect to the local, national and supranational authorities. To answer these questions, the author analyzes the regionalization process in its retrospective dimension and then conducts Foucauldian discourse analysis of the main policy document of the institution of the Euregio to find out how it perceives the power structure of regionalization as a form of cross-border integration and how it intends to shape the way other entities perceive it. The author explains that the regionalization process is so complex and multifaceted that it inevitably leads to coopetition between various actors that try at the same time to assert their power status, outline their rights and responsibilities and retain implicit control over general perception of them by the others. In the course of this analysis it is concluded that the institutions of the euroregions use many discursive tools to properly present themselves, and by doing so they attempt to assume a leading role in a process of further regionalization, while playing down the contribution of the supranational bodies to this process and attributing blame for its not sufficient realization to the national authorities. In fact, the euroregional institutions have appropriated the discourse of regionalization and established an infrastructure of control and regulation that determines the way they shape extra linguistic reality, particularly power relations in the region.
Highlights
The unfolding of the integration process in Europe has set in motion a steady tendency towards more intense cross-border cooperation and the institutionalization of intraregional interactions
There were two concurrent, but fundamentally opposite processes taking place on the continent: in the political setting of Western Europe the states kept on transferring their powers to the supranational center – the European Communities, and by doing so they were contributing to the limited centralization of intergovernmental relations in a number of spheres, while at the national level the governments of these countries introduced a policy of decentralization, giving local authorities increasingly more powers in determining the nature of their development and management of the local economy
As the integration processes grew more intense, spreading to a rising number of spheres, primarily through the launch of the Single Market Initiative enshrined in the Single European Act of 1986, cross-border cooperation was gradually incorporated into the process of the European integration, and the border regions themselves began to be viewed within the conceptual framework of integration theories as a kind of laboratories where it was possible to test different initiatives and measures that were to be later introduced on a larger scale of the European Communities [1]
Summary
The unfolding of the integration process in Europe has set in motion a steady tendency towards more intense cross-border cooperation and the institutionalization of intraregional interactions.
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
