La cohésion territoriale a fait son apparition dans le droit de l’Union à l’ex article 16 TCE aux côtés des SIEG. Elle a connu une consécration dans le droit primaire de l’Union avec son érection au rang d’objectif de l’Union européenne en devenant la troisième dimension de la politique de cohésion aux côtés de la cohésion économique et sociale. Cette nouvelle place dans le droit primaire n’est pas sans poser des questions sur la normativité de ce nouvel objectif et plus largement de sa place dans l’ordre juridique de l’Union. La principale difficulté réside aujourd’hui dans sa définition et ses modalités d’expression et d’intervention. Le Livre vert de la Commission européenne de 2008 consacré à la cohésion territoriale a eu le mérite de mettre l’objectif en perspective en lui donnant une concrétisation à travers essentiellement la politique régionale, mais également plus largement par la nécessaire coordination des politiques à impact territorial. Cette thèse a pour objectif de mettre en lumière les expressions de la cohésion territoriale, appelée à se développer avec la mise en œuvre du traité de Lisbonne. La cohésion territoriale peut également se fonder sur de nombreux autres principes juridiques, à l’image du principe de subsidiarité, pour se doter d’une normativité dans le droit matériel de l’Union, du travail législatif et réglementaire à la mise en œuvre des politiques sectorielles sur le territoire de l’Union. La cohésion territoriale peut enfin s’appuyer sur le droit institutionnel de l’Union et sur le rôle croissant des collectivités infraétatiques pour faire entendre la voie d’une solidarité territoriale dans le modèle d’intégration européenne. / The territorial cohesion appeared in the European Union law at the ex article 16 TCE beside the SIEG. It knew a consecration in the primary european Union law with its erection to the rank of objective of the European Union, becoming the third dimension of the cohesion policy beside the economic and social cohesion. This new place in the primary law is not without asking questions on the normativity of this new objective and more widely its place in the legal order of the european Union. The main difficulty is based on its definition and its modalities of expression and intervention today. The green Book of the European Commission of 2008 dedicated to the territorial cohesion had the merit to put the objective in perspective by giving it a realization through essentially the regional policy, but also more widely by the necessary coordination of the policies with territorial impact. This thesis has for objective to put in light the expressions of the territorial cohesion, called to develop with the application of the treaty of Lisbon. The territorial cohesion can also base itself on the other legal principles, just like the principle of subsidiarity, to build a normativity in the European Union material law, from the legislative and statutory work to the application of the sector-based policies on the European Union territory. The territorial cohesion can finally lean on the european Union institutional law and on the increasing role of the local gouvernment to make the way of a territorial solidarity taken in consideration in the model of the European integration.

The thesis Difficulties of the EU - Cohesion Policy Implementation System in the Czech Republic in the Programming period 2007-2013 deals with application of the theories of the European integration on two case studies. In the first part of the thesis the general history of the EU - structural policy is described. The second part is dedicated to the history of the structural policy in the Czech Republic. The third part is concerned with the theoretical definition of the topic and leads to a definition of the hypothesis and the research method. The main theoretical approach for the case studies is the multi-level governance theory, which describes multi-level sharing of authority among different types of actors. None of those actors has a power to define final version of the given policy. The case studies, which in detail examine the development and the efficiency of the implementation system of structural policy in Czech Republic, prove that this environment can cause the coordination dilemma connected with overuse of the free-riding tactics and high transaction costs. The combination of those elements leads to highly rigid system of implementation.

To meet the ambitious goals of carbon neutrality by 2050 that the European Union has set for itself, urban mobility is going to have to contribute much more to the overall reduction of greenhouse emissions. Sustainable Urban Mobility Plans (SUMPs) are the latest policy of choice coming from the European Commission set to deal with this issue. Interdisciplinary and based on best practices, this holistic transport strategy focuses on people, both as stakeholders in the planning process and as its ultimate beneficiaries. Although successful and popular, the take up process of these policies has been rather uneven across European cities. This paper attempts to uncover what possibly influences decision makers in small and medium sized European cities to adopt a SUMP, via binomial logistic regression on a large subset of cities (296) in 12 EU countries. The findings suggest that cities, which are in geographic proximity to an award-winning city, that have in their vicinity a higher education institution and that have continuously participated in European Mobility Week events, exemplify a higher likelihood to adopt a SUMP. Additionally, we differentiate between city networks, by grouping them as a "commitment" network and a "project" network. The findings indicate that, "commitment" networks have no...

Up until today, nearly all Swedish regions have decided to set up an EU office in Brussels. However, earlier research on the subject shows that there are big differences concerning what the regions are trying to achieve with their EU office. The aim for this study was therefore to analyse Swedish subnational actors’ EU work within three different arenas and dimensions: at the Brussel arena (upload), at home ground (download) and lastly, the coordination between these two arenas (crossload). To achieve this, an extensively material on the subject was gathered by interviewing key persons from both Brussels and the subnational actors’ home organizations. In order to analyse the material, the theoretical framework multi-level governance was put into practice. The theoretical framework offered a definition on how the regions interact within the EU, and it also provided the framework for the analyses.  The study was able to unpack three Swedish subnational actors’ EU approaches and their different forms of organization regarding their work with EU. In addition, the study could for each explored arena set up a collection of criteria’s that Swedish subnational actors must achieve in order to succeed with their strategic work with EU. Those criteria’s, with numerous important subheadings, were categorised as effectiveness, legitimacy, and strategical selection.