Building Europolis on the Basis of Local “Informal” Cooperation in European Cross-Border Spaces: The Case of RIET

Abstract

After twenty five years of cross-border formal cooperation in Europe with origins in the landmark launch of the Communitarian Initiative Interreg (1990), this exploratory analysis offers a model for the study of “second generation” cooperation based on the experience of the Red Ibérica de Entidades Transfronterizas (RIET) that operates in the border space between Spain and Portugal. The case of RIET enables the observation of a model of widened (formal-informal) and reinforced (isopoliteia and sympoliteia) cooperation. Under the name of Europolis, it is based on practices of cross-border local governance that address the processes of cross-border cooperation from diversity and flexibility standpoints. For the examination of the model, the construction of the isopoliteia and sympoliteia put in practice by the leagues of classical Greek cities is taken as an example; and, in turn, applied to the realities of the cities’ networks that boost the development of projects across the European Union’s inner borders ―in our case, the RIET. To this end, their path-dependence is explored from a historical neo-institutionalist perspective, as well as their influence in the definition of cross-border public issues and the political agendas of the Iberian Summits, which brought Spain and Portugal together in the years 2013 and 2014.