A Europe of the Regions: Rhetoric or Reality?

Abstract

Regional Institutions and Governance in the European Union. Edited by Jose M. Magone. Westport, CT: Praeger, 2003. 264 pp., $65.95 (ISBN: 0-275-97617-3). In the mid-1990s, scholarly interest in “federalism” surged, prompted both by globalization and by a push by subnational regions for greater autonomy. These developments seemed to threaten the future of the traditional nation-state by questioning whether it was the optimal unit of political organization. In Europe, this question attained greater salience because the process of European integration already held the potential for weakening nation-states in favor of other levels of government. Not only was the European Union (EU) gaining power at the expense of national capitals, but European regions were pressing for greater power as well. Western Europe's stateless peoples—such as the Scots, Basques, and Catalans—saw political opportunity in the European Union's often-stated goal of “subsidiarity,” which is the principle that governmental tasks should be executed at the lowest level of government possible. Many of Europe's regions created lobbying offices in Brussels, and much ink was spilled proclaiming the new era of a “Europe of the Regions” in which government could be smaller, more innovative, and closer to its citizens, and in which regional governments could wield real power at home and in Brussels. A decade later, this optimism appears to have been unfounded. European regions have indeed gained significantly more power in some countries, but largely as a result of domestic political reform. In Brussels, regions remain marginal players. The European Union's much-touted “Committee of the Regions” is only an advisory body, having no legislative authority. Although federalism remains an influential political development, its impact on European integration appears to have been overemphasized. The contributors to Jose Magone's Regional Institutions and Governance in the European Union , however, remain boldly convinced that we are witnessing nothing short of a political revolution in the role of regionalism in the European Union. Using the important work of Liesbet Hooghe and Gary …