EU Governance and Transnational Networking of Subnational Authorities

In the literature, transnational networking of subnational authorities - involvement of local and regional governments with their counterparts in various interaction processes in the context of cooperation and partnership - can be regarded as one of the recent notable elements of EU governance. In this respect, this kind of network activities implies a facilitating role for engagement of subnational authorities in EU governance processes. Furthermore, it is argued that subnational authorities come together for networking activities such as mutual information sharing, cooperation, joint project development, best practices exchange, lobbying activities, access to financial resources and in this regard some studies consider that these authorities are getting active in the EU governance processes, and they may find some opportunities to enhance their interaction and visibility. Within the scope of this paper, the context related to EU governance and subnational authorities is discussed through the perspective of governance networks as indicating the analysis of various approaches, and the contribution of the studies to be done in this field to local government literature is appraised