The European Union and its regions : the position of sub-national levels in European integration and the contribution of the white paper on European governance

Abstract

The European Union and its future have become the centre o f much attention recently. Not only have lustrous politicians embarked upon a series of speeches about possible ways to organise this complex and unique construction that has led most o f the peoples o f Europe into a more and more closely integrated union. There seems at the same time to be a certain dissatisfaction amongst those peoples, which apparently finds its cause in a growing distance felt between the European Union and its citizens. A recent expression of this dissatisfaction - or perhaps even distrust — is the negative outcome of the referendum about the Nice Treaty in Ireland. Without trying to generalise, it can probably be said that the European Union finds itself in a sort of identity crisis. The sui generis nature of die Union does not seem to satisfy people any more. While many politicians and academics busy themselves with questions relating to the future design and the specific nature of this construction, citizens and other so-called ‘new actors’, such as sub-national levels of government, find that they are not sufficiently involved in the way European policies are made and implemented.