Regional involvement in EU trade policy: what remains after politicization?

Abstract

ABSTRACT Wallonia demonstrated the importance of regional actors for EU trade policy. What remains, however, of regional involvement when politicization subsides, as after CETA and TTIP? Our paper provides a framework that allows a prediction of involvement after politicization. It posits that the interaction of three factors is decisive: politicization (short-term), preferences (medium-term), institutions (long-term). The more regional actors dispose of institutionalised channels of voice and the more they develop endogenous preferences, the less impact for politicization. We demonstrate this interplay in the cases of Austria, Germany, Belgium, Spain, and Italy. Whereas regional involvement in Spain and Italy is driven near-exclusively by politicization, the German and Austrian Länder will remain cooperatively involved even in its absence. The Belgian regions, in turn, are in a process of gradual institutionalization. Our study demonstrates that regional actors remain a force to be reckoned with in EU trade policy, but some more so than others.