Territorial Cohesion and Subsidiarity under the European Union Treaties: A Critique of the 'Territorialism' Underlying

The European Union competence for territorial cohesion is subject to the subsidiarity principle regulating relations between authorities at various levels, each concerned with a fixed space. The literature describes the underlying view as 'territorialism'. In reality space is relative and each area the point of intersection of numerous configurations. Therefore, territorial authorities cannot deal with all aspects of territorial cohesion, nor can territorial representation be the only source of legitimacy. By enforcing the assumption that decisions by representative bodies as close as possible to citizens safeguard democratic legitimacy, subsidiarity is therefore a stumbling block in the pursuit of territorial cohesion.