Research Papers

With the Treaty of Lisbon (2007), the promotion of territorial cohesion has been anchored, in addition to economic and social cohesion, as key-objective of the European Union (Art. 3 TEU). The proposed paper will follow the approach of defining territorial cohesion through specific actions and will focus in particular on the European Grouping of Territorial Cooperation (EGTC) as emerging form of territorial cooperation. The aim is to study how the EGTC as new EU-instrument to organize territorial cooperation can enhance territorial cohesion in sensitive pluri-ethnic border regions, where cohesion is important both from economic and cultural perspective. For that purpose, two EGTC case-studies will be elaborated from a comparative perspective: The EGTC Eurométropole Lille-Kortrijk-Tournai (France, Belgium) and the EGTC Ister-Granum (Hungary, Slovakia). The paper will assess both composition (membership, organs, decision-making procedures, etc.) and activities (goals and projects) of these two EGTCs. The empiric study will be guided by two assumptions: The first one is that cohesion policy tends to become a territorial policy rather than a sectoral one and is, thus, not only limited to economic and social affairs but should be sustained by a broader concept of cohesion that includes also issues of cultural diversity. Secondly, it is assumed that new strategies of integration and governance are emerging that are marked by a transnational, inclusive and multi-level character which gives them legitimization both from an in-put and out-put perspective. The case studies will also set the basis for discussing these two assumptions and for drawing respective preliminary conclusions.