Cross-Border Cooperation and the European Administrative Space – Prospects from the Principle of Mutual Recognition

Abstract

With the introduction of the territorial cohesion objective and under the redesign of the new cohesion policy, cross-border cooperation has become an increasingly important level of “horizontal” European integration. Representing at the same time a specific transnational pattern of the European Administrative Space (EAS), however, its practical functioning is still hindered by various factors amongst which the diverging national legal and administrative framework conditions of the participating actors represent the major obstacle with regards to the development of effective cross-border governance regimes. Based on the analysis of central challenges of practical cross-border governance, the article examines the question whether the application the principle of mutual recognition, initially developed for the free movement of goods in the non-harmonized area, could provide a basis for substantial improvement in European cross-border cooperation. Four fields ofapplication are designed, allowing for a new quality of transnational administrative cooperation and a new understanding of the laboratory role that cross-border territories might play both for the EAS and further European integration.