Suprarégionalisation transfrontalière? Grande Région Saar-Lor-Lux

European Union integration policy has challenged traditional border functions resulting in regionalisation processes and policy makers facing diverse functional interdependencies across multiple scales and territories. Local and regional authorities participate in a European multi-level governance system. Within regions, cross-border cooperation institutionalises distinct forms of governance. This thesis investigates the regionalisation process launched across borders at a subnational level using the case study of the Greater Region Saar-Lor-Lux. Conceptually, this study defines regionalization as construction of a region. This analysis of cross-border cooperation in the Greater Region explains “cross-border supraregionalisation” through three processes. First, the discursive construction of a cross-border strategy illustrates the complexity of joint positioning. The metropolitan impetus advocated in the Greater Region reveals the ambivalent objectives of the partners and the dominance of the metropolitan discourse at the national and European level. Second, beyond the institutional cooperation space (“Vertragraum”), the space of the mandate (“Mandatsraum”) serves as a medium to territorialise the joint strategy. It results from the ideal projection of the strategy in space and thus, evokes a bordering process. This “soft space” is constantly negotiated between the partners and illustrates patterns of cross-border spatial empowerment. Third, the study analyses the extent to which cross-border partners delegate responsibilities and legitimacy to joint cross-border institutions, especially through the innovative legal instrument European Grouping for Territorial Cooperation.