European perspective

The article examines the interactions between territorial cooperation, national borders, and suprarregional institution-building, with a particular focus on the EU legal instrument of the European Grouping of Territorial Cooperation (EGTC). Following its introduction in 2006, the EGTC instrument provided new impetus towards a post-national Europe of (cross-border) regions under a supranational umbrella. As a suprarregional institution, it carried the promise of granting competences to subnational territorial authorities for autonomous territorial governance. However, despite being based on EU law, the law applicable in practice remains under national jurisdiction.

In addition, recent processes of renationalisation have also contributed to new forms of demarcation, making national borders once again tangible across various fields of territorial governance. The study examines which specific borders between individual EU member states are “narrowed” or “downloaded” to the subnational (regional or local) level from the perspective of territorial governance. To this end, two EGTC projects with German participation were analysed: the German–French Eurodistrict SaarMoselle EGTC and the German–Polish TransOderana EGTC. The analysis explores cross-border governance processes as well as specific borders that intentionally or unintentionally hinder cross-border cooperation or even the successful establishment of an EGTC, as was the case, for example, with TransOderana.