Cross-border cooperation along the EU's external border and the diversity of regionalization processes in the European neighbourhood

The European Neighbourhood Policy is the container of several regionalization and bordering processes: the bilateral relations in the framework of ENP are complemented by four regional strategies (Northern Dimension, Eastern Partnership, Euro-Mediterranean Partnership and Black Sea Synergy) and thirteen Cross Border Cooperation programmes. The sum of these initiatives constitutes a complex strategy which contributes to the rebordering and rescaling of EU’s relation with its neighbouring countries, by promoting the construction of a multi-faced, multi-actor and “wider” Europe. The aim of the paper is to see how a single policy framework, the European Neighbourhood Policy, produces differentiated strategies, different bordering processes and different regionalizations. Such differentiation, it is argued, depends on the diversity of the contexts in which the ENP is applied, on how this diversity is perceived by European policy-makers, and on the different geopolitical priorities of the EU’s external politics. The paper focus in particular upon two elements that differentiate European strategies towards different neighbouring regions: the conceptualization of border and the influence of cohesion principles and narratives, with particular attention to the concept of territorial cohesion.