The Domestic Use of European Policies: European Regional Policies in Eastern Germany and Southern Italy

Although network governance and multi-level governance approaches have had to revise some of their claims, comparative empirical research and revised conceptualisations of the impact of European regional policies are rare. This paper conceives of European regional policy as a process of policy diffusion in which the supply side of (European) policies and the demand side of the domestic arena can be linked in different ways. The paper will present, firstly, an analysis of the opportunity structures European regional policies provide for domestic actors; and, secondly, a typology of different domestic constellations which lead to a different use of European policies. The empirical cases of eastern Germany and southern Italy, two of the most important underdeveloped areas in western Europe, demonstrate that the use of European policies for the empowerment of the regions and for a transformation of policies and polity are two of the possible results of the impact of European regional policy, but they are bound to very specific domestic preconditions.