The extended gatekeeper: central government and the implementation of EC regional policy in the UK

Abstract

This article evaluates the merits of multi-level governance as an explanatory model of EU decision-making. Regional policy implementation is a particularly good case study for evaluating multi-level governance for two reasons. First, because regional policy, along with other EC structural policies, is considered to be at 'the leading edge of multi-level governance'. And, second, because 'Multi-level governance is prominent in the implementation stage' (Marks et al . 1996: 365). The article presents evidence to suggest that while multi-level participation is a feature of EC regional policy implementation in the UK, it is less clear that this constitutes multi-level governance: central government remains dominant. Thus, where the intergovernmentalist 'gatekeeper' notion is useful in describing the behaviour of national governments in EU policy-making, it makes sense to refer to an extended gatekeeper that can operate at all stages of the policy process, including the contested sphere of policy implementation.