Öresundsregionen i regionernas Europa. En kvalitativ studie av gränsöverskridande politiskt samarbete och governance i Regionkommittén

Sammanfattning: The object of this thesis is the Öresund region and the Committee of the Regions (CoR). It may be the first survey to examine a cross-border region such as the Öresund region within the Committee of the Regions and describes how Swedish and Danish CoR-members from this region co-operate within the CoR. Semi-structured elite interviews have been conducted with CoR-members at the sub-national level in the Öresund region and theories of governance, including multi-level governance and accountability, have been applied to describe and discuss the political cooperation and its democratic aspects. The findings are that the cross-border co-operation within the Öresund region has no real influence on the co-operation. The members tend to cooperate informally both with each other and other members as the formal settings for cross-border cooperation are poor within the CoR. Some problems of accountability can occur as the members are representatives and not elected to this body and there is a strong search for consensus within the committee. The multi-level governance tends not to threaten democracy as the committee is an advising and not a decision-making European body, but the CoR-members as actors in different networks and problems of accountability may be a threat to democracy.