The role of the cities in the European Union

What is it about?

European cities claim that the European Union falls short regarding their ‘recognition’, ‘representation’ and ‘participation’ at the policy-making process. Applying the multilevel system paradigm as a conceptual framework, this paper argues that the ongoing European political project allows for the existence of ‘informal governance’ arrangements that could circumvent shortcomings and vacuums generated by the rigidness of the legal framework. The aim of the research is to assess to what extent EU representatives’ personal attitudes could contribute to reduce cities’ lack of recognition, representation and participation. By carrying out in-depth semi-structured interviews with officials from the EU institutions and Eurocities, the study seeks to evaluate their ‘awareness’, ‘dialogical attitude’ and ‘participatory disposition’ concerning the improvement of cities’ influence at the European decision-making level. The research contributes to future academic analyses by identifying preliminary conditions of the scenario where the EU and cities interact. KEYWORDS: European Union’s cities, European Union’s multilevel governance, informal governance, officials’ attitudes, relational theory

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Why is it important?

Cities are increasing their political influence internationally and the European Union is an example of their impact on the environmental and social integration policies. Besides, cities' councils are closer to the citizens than other national or European institutions, fostering their participation at the EU level. Although cities enjoy an official representation at some of the EU institutions, it is not as efficient as they would like. Therefore, cities representatives try different ways to get their proposals through: that is, they act in the informal governance context. The article examines personal attitudes towards cities' requirements of some of those people who deal with them and how helpful for cities' aims they are.