Has the EU Ireland-Wales Interreg programme empowered sub-national networks? Pre- and post-Brexit challenges of cooperation across the Irish Sea

Lagana, Giada 2022. Has the EU Ireland-Wales Interreg programme empowered sub-national networks? Pre- and post-Brexit challenges of cooperation across the Irish Sea. The Journal of Cross Border Studies in Ireland 17 , pp. 49-64.

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Abstract

Despite a vibrant and growing academic literature on European Union (EU) sponsored cross-border initiatives, remarkably little is known about cooperation between Ireland and Wales, its genesis, and specific programmes that helped to shape it over the years. This article tackles all these questions and, by using the Interreg Ireland-Wales programme as an illustrative example, it investigates the pre-and-post Brexit challenges, successes and failures of substate authorities in actively shape cooperation across the Irish Sea. First, the article examines the critical role played by the EU in providing both the specific financial resources for Ireland-Wales collaboration, and a wider governance framework within which this could develop. Second, it will consider the broader context of the Brexit debates and developments in the United Kingdom (UK), the Republic of Ireland and the EU and their far-reaching consequences on the future of such cooperation. The creation, the geographical dimension, the thematic priorities and the governance mechanisms appear in this context as key achievements brought by the Interreg programme to the Ireland-Wales cross-border region. For the future, the paper will argue for a necessary uphold of the past achievements, in particular in relation to the role of substate networks in representing civil society’s needs in the cross-border territorial context of the Irish Sea.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Published Online
Status:	Published
Schools:	Department of Politics and International Relations (POLIR)
Subjects:	G Geography. Anthropology. Recreation > G Geography (General) J Political Science > JN Political institutions (Europe) > JN101 Great Britain J Political Science > JS Local government Municipal government J Political Science > JZ International relations
ISSN:	2054-572X
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	21 October 2022
Date of Acceptance:	1 September 2022
Last Modified:	20 Nov 2023 12:31
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/153653

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