A régiók jelentősége a mai európai politikai életben

A régiók nem csak a közelmúltban jelentek meg az európai politika színpadán, mint önálló szereplők, tevékenységüket már évtizedek óta jegyzik. Ennek középpontjában mindenekelőtt a régiók határokon átnyúló együttműködése áll, ezt egészítették ki a régiók transznacionális megállapodásaival, amelyek arra szolgáltak, hogy a nemzetállamok kormányaival valamint a nemzetközi szervezetekkel, különösképpen az Európa Tanáccsal és az Európai Közösséggel szemben érdekképviseletüket gyakorolják. Az utóbbi időben a régiók egyre energikusabban és követelőbben hívták fel magukra a figyelmet. Tevékenységük súlypontja jelenleg nyilvánvalóan az EU és az integrációs folyamatokon belül helyezkedik el. A régiók mint az EU-kontextus politikai tényezői igen sokrétű tevékenységet mutatnak fel, amelyek az „Európa régiói” megjelölésben foglalhatók össze. Az elnevezésből, mint sokszor használatos szlogenből azonban hiányzik egy egyértelmű és ugyanakkor közös megegyezéssel alapuló, elfogadott tartalom. Regions appeared as autonomous entities on the European political stage not only in recent years. The activity of regions has been recorded for decades. It focuses above all on the cross-border cooperation of regions, and was supplemented by the trans-national agreements of regions, which served to practice their representation against the governments of nation states as well as international organisations, in particular, the European Council and the European Community. Most recently, regions have drawn attention to their presence more and more and when doing so have found increasing attention. Their centre of activity is now obviously located within the EU and the integration processes. Regions as the political factors of the EU context show a wide range of activities that can be summarized under the label of ‘the regions of Europe’. The name, as a frequently used slogan, is lacking a clear and at the same time jointly agreed, accepted content. Regions and regionalism are rather flourishing in Europe. But what do regionalism and the expression Europe of regions exactly mean? There are many approaches to the question, the concept of cross-border interregionality between the Member States of the European Union, or the effort to make regions the basic building blocks of European integration instead of states, and the objective to introduce a three-tier structure to the European Union which would extend the already existing tiers of the European Union and the Member States with a third one, the territorial units within nation states. The first approach has long been adopted, the second approach is rather utopian. The third one is subject to fierce debates: a three-tier European Union with European, nation state and regional levels

A régiók fejlődése és a szubnacionális mobilizáció az Európai Unióban

Subnational mobilisation was one of the most outstanding features of the European internal policy of the 1990s. The phenomenon is reflected by two, mutually reinforcing factors. On the one hand, the 1988 reform of the Structural Funds and several provisions and principles of TEU created new opportunities for regions to become involved in the European politics; on the other hand, processes and theoretical debates towards the territorial decentralisation of power within Member States, as well as the openness and activism of regions in the area of structural and cohesion policy expressed more and more pronounced needs of enforcement of their rights. The opportunities and demands, the “Europe of the regions”, the concept of a “Three-tier Europe” together with the EU becoming a multi-level governance system collectively constitute the conditionality of subnational mobilisation. The phenomenon can be summarised as follows: the regions within the state and at Community level, by the concurrent use of institutional and informal tools, are increasingly becoming involved and are increasingly becoming involved and are increasingly shaping the EU institutions and their decision-making processes