European Overview

Governance has since long been a real challenge for the European Union (COM (2001) 428 final) White Paper on European Governance). With the inclusion of territorial cohesion in the EU Treaty (Lisbon Treaty, 2009), territorial governance was also acknowledged as a major issue at stake (Barca report, 2009). Territorial governance can be understood in two ways: governance of territories (how is a territory organised) and/or territorial dimension of governance (referring to wider understanding of governance, and how this larger perspective integrates the territorial dimension – or not)(ESPON 2006, report 2 3 2 on territorial governance). Both includes at least two aspects: a) the legal, institutional and juridical framework in which it takes places, b) the governance organisation based on more informal grounds. In this paper we want to investigate those different paths, with a focus on the new European juridical tool to organise territorial cooperation: the European grouping for territorial cooperation (EC1082/2006), and in particular which potential this instrument provides for a fruitful governance on the EU territory. Elaborating further on our work for TERCO report (ESPON 2013) we first concentrate on the current implementation of European grouping for territorial cooperation, and the challenges it is facing. We then focus on the large range of governance arrangements that existing EGTCs are illustrating, the added value of the instrument, and the future challenges it will be facing. Eventually, we then conclude on the potential of EGTC instrument for fruitful territorial cooperation, having in mind that ‘one size does not fit all’ (Barca, id), and that our hypothesis is that there is no universal – neither European – ‘best model’ of governance, but rather a best model of ‘process’ – including some fundamental prerequisites – to be adapted according to time and place.