Europeanisation and domestic territorial change: the Spanish and Romanian cases of territorial adaptation in the context of EU enlargement

Abstract

Previous studies on Europeanisation and domestic territorial and regional change have presented different interpretations that appear at first sight to be irreconcilable. The empirical evidence presented by the authors writing in the field points towards contradictory patterns and examples of national change. Whereas some authors argue that the EU’s impact at the domestic level led to convergence towards regionalisation, others stress the opposite, namely, that it has led to divergence, either regionalisation or centralisation depending on the existing national structures. In this study, I seek to contribute to this debate on Europeanization in two main ways. First, I try to unpack these contrasting hypotheses andmeasurements of domestic change and second, I apply and test them by studying how the EC/EU prospect of membership affects the territorial and regional governance of Spain and Romania. The two countries were selected for their similarity in so far as they have an authoritarian past, have historical regional and territorial structures, and were faced with the task of reforming their meso-level organisation and arrangements in the framework of their post-authoritarian transformation and preparation for EC/EU membership. In investigating these two cases, findings indicate that there is a complex array of different territorial units, institutional arrangements and policy choices across