Multi-Level Governance Type I and II: From Concept to Implementation

The process of European integration has been promoting subnational mobilization activities in both federal and centralized states. The regions’ activities in Brussels have been pushing forward research on the subnational level. Their activities have been initially critised as counteracting the foreign policies of member states of the EU. From the conceptual work on multi-level governance as the continuous negotiation taking place at different levels of governments that are nested at different territorial levels, the network character of regional presence in Brussels has offered regions to become actors in different constellations. Some regions are increasingly acknowledged as political spaces and as active actors within European policies. Other regions, especially from the newer member state, cannot overcome centralist fears and have barely direct contact with European actors or Brussels-based actors. The paper offers a reflection on how the two types of multi-level governance (the federalist legacy and the task specific jurisdictions) can be combined into a region’s strategy of participation and engagement in European policy-making processes. For this purpose, empirical evidence from the German Land Saxony-Anhalt is presented and nested within the conceptual work on multi-level governance. The paper deals with topics such as regional interest representation and access channels and multi-level implementation of regional strategy.