New Forms of Governance in the Transnational Cooperations

Abstract

To realise the full economic and social potential of the so called „macro-regions”, the EU has already defined comprehensive strategies for the Baltic Sea and the Danube area, providing a strong rationale for establishing further macro-regions inter alia in the Mediterranean and the North Sea. These efforts are part of an emerging paradigm-shift towards a functional and integrated approach by transnational nature but at the same time it serve as a test case for territorial cohesion in general, and – as a special mode of multi-level governance – for territorial governance in particular. This paper advances the argument that in the light of the post 2013 cohesion policy and European Union Strategy for the Danube Region it is worth exploring and comparing the possible institutional models in order to establish an innovative operational practice of territorial governance.