The Atlantic Arc: Transnational European Reality or Regional Mirage?

Article Abstract:

In promoting transnational regional development, the European Commission designated the `Atlantic Arc' as one of eight `Euroregions' in its Europe 2000 reports. This article critically examines this `Arc' concept and assesses the degree to which it is being transformed into reality. It then draws implications for builders for other potential transnational regions within the EU. While the Atlantic Arc Commission has promoted a range of cross-border activities, commitment to it varies greatly and the projects undertaken remain limited in scale. Therefore, it is too soon to judge whether it is generating durable transnational `bottom-up' development, or merely pursuing a regional mirage.

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Small State Influence Within the EU: The Case of Finland's `Northern Dimension Initiative'

Article Abstract:

This article deals with regionalization in Northern Europe, focusing in particular on the Northern Dimension Initiative (NDI) which, launched in 1997, was Finland's first political initiative as an EU member. The NDI was ostensibly designed to enhance the influence of Northern Europe as a political actor by co-ordinating the work of the various cross-national initiatives that emerged there in the 1990s. The NDI was far from a routine initiative. It urged the need to improve co-operation between the EU and such outside organizations as the Barents Euro-Arctic Regional Council and the Council of Baltic Sea States on the one hand, and to increase co-ordination between different programmes and pillars within the EU on the other. The central question posed in this article is: `What does the NDI indicate about the ability of small states to influence EU policy? Have small states become more influential in the post-Cold War era? Is `small' synonymous with `smart' in Joenniemi's terms?

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National and Partisan Contexts of Europeanization: The Case of the French Socialists

Article Abstract:

This article affirms the usefulness of thinking of Europeanization and European policy change in terms of national, party and European contexts and their interrelationships. Through a case study of the French Socialists in office, the article seeks to establish that national, party and European policy contexts matter in different ways and in varying degrees. National context provides a set of institutions, interests and referential paradigms which help to make sense of a complex external environment. Party provides a distinctive partisan lens and an enduring political community. Europeanization poses a series of direct and indirect policy challenges and opportunities for nation-states and party governments. The article considers national and Europeanized pressures to be more significant than partisan processes.

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