Print page Close window

European Centre for Research on Federalism, Tuebingen/Germany

Yearbook on Federalism 2006

Europäische Länderberichte [European country reports]

Regionalisierungstendenzen in Lettland durch die Europäisierung?
[Regionalisation tendencies in Latvia by Europeanization?]

Sigita Urdze / Michèle Knodt

pp. 357-369

The article focuses on the influences of the EU on the regionalisation strategies in Latvia. It identifies three main mechanisms that can evolve resp. accelerate institutional change in this area: 1. Imposition in the case of Latvia this means changes initiated by the accession to the EU, especially the adoption of the acquis; 2. involvement, here mainly into the structural and regional policy of the EU; 3. supply, propagating appropriate and exemplary concepts, such as. After examining the three possible mechanisms the article comes to the conclusion that they all have influenced the developments associated with regionalisation. However especially for imposition it can be said that paradoxically it not only furthers decentralisation but also simultaneously stimulates certain effects of centralisation since most of the measures in this area are coordinated from the capital Riga. The same holds true for involvement, where decision-making in structural funding was organised in a centralised and hierarchical way. Du to a lack of regional forces or veto-actors, nearly no decision-making power was given to regional actors. Besides, EU concepts found their way into Latvias policy-making process. Finally, it is important not to ignore possible negative effects that can come along with the EU regionalisation strategy, mainly the reduction of financing for other urgent projects caused by the need for national co-financing and the furthering of centralization due to the need for a limited number of contact persons/institutions for the EU.

Suggested citation for this article:
Urdze, Sigita/Knodt, Michèle 2006: Regionalisierungstendenzen in Lettland durch die Europäisierung?, in: Europäisches Zentrum für Föderalismus-Forschung (ed.): Jahrbuch des Föderalismus 2006. Föderalismus, Subsidiarität und Regionen in Europa, Baden-Baden: Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft, p. 357-369.