Europeanisation of Regional Policy Making: A Boolean Analysis of Norwegian Counties' Participation in the Eu's Interreg Programme

Abstract

How does the EU affect policy making by regional governments in Norway, a unitary nonmember state? We address this question through examining the impact of participation in the Interreg programme on Norwegian county councils' regional development policies. We examine forty-four acts of participation by Norwegian counties in Interreg projects, tracking their effects on both incremental policy changes and radical changes of policy direction. We find that most of the projects have resulted in policy changes by the county council and sometimes by other actors, and almost a third have resulted in a completely or partly new policy direction. Examining which projects had the greatest impact, we find that the county council's ability to shape the project according to regional concerns, especially in newly formed networks, is an important mediating condition. This could indicate that regional governments are using Interreg as a channel for policy entrepreneurship, building activities in new policy areas.