Meta-governing out of conflict: the European Union Programme for Peace and Reconciliation

Lagana, Giada 2025. Meta-governing out of conflict: the European Union Programme for Peace and Reconciliation. McAuley, James W., Braniff, Máire and Spencer, Grahm, eds. A Companion to Conflict and Peace in Northern Ireland, Vol. 146. Reimagining Ireland, Oxford: Peter Lang, pp. 497-513.

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Abstract

This chapter reassesses the European Union’s contribution to the Northern Ireland peace process by shifting attention from intergovernmental dynamics to the societal and bottom-up dimensions of EU peacebuilding. While existing scholarship highlights the EU’s role in reshaping British–Irish cooperation or its financial support for reconciliation, this chapter argues that the EU’s most significant impact lay in its metagovernance of emerging cross-community and cross-border networks. Drawing on the concept of metagovernance as the strategic steering of self-organising governance arenas, the chapter shows how the EU cultivated the conditions for cooperative, networked peacebuilding without displacing the authority of the British or Irish governments. Through programmes such as INTERREG and, crucially, the PEACE I initiative, the EU developed indirect tools that empowered civil society groups, strengthened cross-border partnerships, and created institutional spaces where local actors could articulate needs, build capacity, and shape priorities. Based on documentary analysis and interview evidence, the chapter demonstrates how these interventions operated across socio-spatial, political, and economic dimensions to sustain the peace process from below. By conceptualising EU peacebuilding as metagovernance, the chapter offers a novel interpretation of how the EU helped transform Northern Ireland from a site of conflict to a site of reconciliation, with enduring relevance for the post-Brexit context.

Item Type:	Book Section
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Schools > Department of Politics and International Relations (POLIR)
Subjects:	J Political Science > JA Political science (General) J Political Science > JN Political institutions (Europe)
Publisher:	Peter Lang
ISBN:	978-1-80079-867-0
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	27 November 2025
Last Modified:	28 Nov 2025 09:45
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/182710

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