In complement to research on levels of European identity and whether politicians and civil servants intend to strengthen a European identity through their work, this paper reveals that four EU regions (Germany’s Brandenburg, Belgium’s Wallonia; France’s Nord-Pas de Calais; and the South West of England) indeed intend to strengthen a European identity through their respective European engagement. The paper analyses the comparative extent to which each of these regions include objectives of social integration and European identity formation within their European policies and programmes. The analysis takes into account influential factors to the scope and objectives of their European portfolio, including the degree of political authority of the region to develop its own European policy and programmes (Hooghe; Marks & Schakel, 2010); the political support for a more integrated EU; the EU funded programmes available to the region, which in turn influence the region’s European engagement; and ‘environmental’ factors, such as geographic and language barriers.
This paper draws on over 70 semi-structured interviews with EU regions’ politicians and civil servants in Germany, Belgium, France and the UK, as well as DG REGIO policy development managers. It stems from a larger research project, my PhD thesis: “From Policy to Identity – Regions at the heart of the European Project.”
