This thesis explores to what extent the fusion approach can explain the role of local government in the European integration process. It assesses the efficacy of the fusion approach for the study of local government and subsequently offers insights how to advance the approach by giving it a local government perspective. Among the existing research of local-supranational relations, hardly any attempts have been made to provide a comprehensive, albeit differentiated, theoretical perspective to understand how the local level links into the macro-trajectories of the EU’s governance system. Fusion assumes that the transfer of competences from the national to the European level reflect a ‘third way’ integration between supranational integration and intergovernmental cooperation. In the fusion account, public resources and policy instruments are ‘fusing’ under a sub-optimal multilevel compound. Existing integration theories focus primarily on the state level, whilst concepts such as multilevel governance and Europeanisation do not explain the evolution of the EU’s polity. The thesis shows that the fusion approach accounts for both multilevel realities and for Europeanisation processes in the context of European integration. The thesis assesses whether the fusion approach is able to explain a) systemic linkages between European integration and changes at the local level; b) a fusion of competences and accountabilities for policy outcomes in Europe’s multilevel compound; c) the attitudes of local actors towards the integration process. For the purpose of applying and testing the fusion approach for the study of local government, the study deduces five empirical indicators from the fusion literature and investigates their relevance at the local level in the North West of England and North Rhine-Westphalia. The indicators assess 1) the absorption of European legislation and policy by local government; 2) the Europeanisation of local actors’ attention towards supranational policies and legislation; 3) institutional and procedural adaptation processes at all relevant levels of government; 4) vertical and horizontal, as well as direct and indirect, action of municipal authorities in relation to EU policies; 5) local actors’ attitudes towards European policies and governance. The empirical findings are based on qualitative elite-interviews, secondary literature and primary documents. Although there are limitations to the efficacy of fusion for explaining local-supranational relations, as an advanced version of the approach, the thesis delivers insights into the systemic linkages between European integration and changes at the local level; the fusion of local government and the attitudes of local actors towards the EU.

This thesis explores the capacity of local government to influence intergovernmental organizations’ policy frameworks during the formulation and implementation of their instruments and policies. It provides empirical insights into the decision making and implementation of international policy regimes, specifically within a European context, and contributes to the broader theoretical understanding of these regimes through the development of multi-level governance as a framework of analysis. The thesis extends multi-level governance as a theoretical framework in two ways. First, it does so by going beyond its usual development and application within the European Union. The role of local government is examined in the pan-European political context shaped by the Council of Europe. Second, it pays special attention to the upstream link between local authorities and international actors in the context of multi-level governance settings. To date, most research on local government in multi-level governance settings has focused on the new challenges brought by extended multiple tiers of jurisdictions and how local government has been affected by the internationally shaped political arrangements. Little attention has been placed on the upward flow of interaction of local authorities or their capacity to influence international decision making and policy implementation. Empirical research in this thesis has focused on the capacity of local government to share the meta-steering role with the multi-level governance framework. The potential of local government to influence the international policy frameworks has been investigated based on its unique value in enhancing good governance in line with international norms and principles. At the theoretical level, the research argues multi-level governance reflects not simply the redistribution of power resources among various actors, but also the process of reshaping understanding and preferences through direct communication between actors at different territorial levels. It suggests that local political preferences can be shaped and reframed by broader values and consequently generates significant influence on higher level policy outcomes. However, despite the existence of specific constitutional devices for involving local development in the legislative processes of the Council of Europe, empirical evidence shows local authorities have largely failed to take up this opportunity, and their influence remains limited. Implications hence can be drawn for wider utilization of local engagement in intergovernmental organizations; for example, within the context the Committee of the Regions of the Europe Union.

This thesis examines the relation between subnational autonomies, that is to say regional and local authorities and the norms they create, and European Union law. The existence of local and regional autonomies within the various Member States of the EU is a factual truth. We know that they exist and co-exist with other levels of public authority, themselves generating norms. Yet, on its surface European Union law does not devise any substantive understanding of such autonomies. This stands in stark contrast to the relation between the Member States and the EU, which is governed by a complex catalogue of Treaty rules. As a consequence of European integration, however, subnational autonomies and EU law do interact, so that the latter cannot simply ignore the existence of the former. This thesis sets out to determine the contours of their mutual relation through an analysis of EU procedural and substantive law. It uncovers that the relation between subnational autonomies and EU law is multifarious and diverges depending on whether we look at the surface of EU law, that is to say the Treaties, or whether we look below its surface, at the Court of Justice's rich case law or soft law instruments of the Commission. I map this conclusion through a modelling approach, relying on what I term the 'Insider Model' and the 'Outsider Model' respectively. These models underline that, in some areas of EU law, SNAs are seen to be outsiders to the project of European integration whereas other areas recognise SNAs and especially their norms to be the insiders of that project. The coexistence of both models forces us intellectually to rearrange things. It challenges our 'constitutional imagination'. The key to understanding the coexistence of both models can be found in the evolution of EU law itself. While the Outsider Model remains attached to the public international law origins of the EU Treaties, the Insider Model captures the reality that not only States and citizens, but also SNAs, are integrated into the EU legal order.