The emergence and governance of Euroregions: the case of the EUREGIO on the Dutch-German border

With a history dating back to the 1950s, the EUREGIO is among the oldest Euroregions in Europe. It can be considered as a successful case of a crossborder region (CBR) in the sense that it has firmly established itself as a border agency within its stretch of the Dutch-German border area. The EUREGIO has also been one of the main protagonists behind the Association of European Border Regions (AEBR) that over the last decades acted to spread the Euroregion model across the European territory. This chapter has several objectives. Firstly, it introduces the case of the EUREGIO and presents evidence on its history, organisational set-up and policies.1 Secondly, it analyses the context conditions under which the EUREGIO emerged and the governance structures that were created as a result. Particular emphasis is put on the position and role of the EUREGIO within the wider context of the European multi-level governance framework generated by EU cohesion policy. The chapter concludes with an attempt to evaluate the success and impact of the EUREGIO and a discussion of the challenges related to the EUREGIO’s dual role as representative of local authority interests and EU cohesion policy implementation agency.