Europeanisation of Cross-border Governance ? A Case Study on the Cause, Form and Consequences of a Co-operation Project in the German-Polish-Czech Border Triangle

Cross-border governance in central Europe underwent a phase of Europeanisation due to EU enlargement in 2004. The question is how European influences interact with conditions in a specific region. The article applies Knill's framework of Europeanisation mechanisms and Blatter's hypothesis about the role of 'imported' ideas and paradigms to a case study on the German-Polish-Czech co-operation project ENLARGE-NET. This project applied a territorial mode of governance. However, it did not evolve into a permanent institution because it was not in line with the regional context, which is characterised by a difficult history, economic disparities, a lack of common identities and few transboundary interdependencies.