Bounding through territory: European union and multi-level territorial governance

Abstract

This study discusses what implications territorial governance has on the governmental and territorial nature of the European Union (EU). The EU increasingly addresses governance on a territorial basis to improve its territorial integrity and coherence. It seeks to set up horizontal and vertical cooperation between different governmental levels and strengthen the institutionalization of territories. This way of governing is bounded by the EU's territory, thereby a single overarching political scale emerges. In this framework, perusing into the documents on spatial development and territorial state/agenda of the EU and the available literature, the study suggests that the spaces of governance in the EU, considered as territorial, are interwoven, and this structure is attached to a supranational territory.