Cross-Border Horizontal Europeanization From a Municipal Perspective: The Example of the German-French-Luxembourg Border Region Saarlorlux

• Published date: 01 December 2025
• Author: Julia Dittel,Florian Weber
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/cep4.70024
• Section: Research Article

Contemporary European Politics

RESEARCH ARTICLE

Cross‐Border Horizontal Europeanization From a

Municipal Perspective: The Example of the

German‐French‐Luxembourg Border Region Saarlorlux

Julia Dittel | Florian Weber

Saarland University, Saarbrücken, Saarland, Germany

Correspondence: Julia Dittel (julia.dittel@uni-saarland.de)

Received: 30 April 2025 | Revised: 14 August 2025 | Accepted: 25 September 2025

Funding: The results presented are based on a research project funded by the State Chancellery of the Saarland. We would like to thank them for their support.

We would also like to thank Elisabeth Donat and Simon Lenhart for their helpful comments on our manuscript for the Special Issue on Europeanization at the

sub‐national level.

Keywords: challenges | cross‐border horizontal Europeanization| multilevel governance| municipal actors | opportunities | SaarLorLux border region

ABSTRACT

Border regions located on the periphery of nation states stand to benefit in many ways from the process of European integration;

at the same time, however, they highlight and even magnify the persistent obstacles that hinder and retard cross‐border

cooperation. In the course of Europeanization debates, the subnational level has been seen as closer to citizens than abstract

Brussels, but it finds itself in a sandwich position in the interplay between ‘top‐down’and ‘bottom‐up’. This article addresses

this ambivalence and explores perspectives for cross‐border horizontal Europeanization with a focus on the local level, which

has not yet received sufficient attention. Against the background of the debate on horizontal Europeanization—closely linked to

border studies—, the SaarLorLux (i.e. German‐French‐Luxembourg) border region is used here as a case study. On the basis of

quantitative and qualitative surveys at the local level, it becomes clear that municipal decision‐makers do indeed see the cross‐

border region as a laboratory of European integration. However, they demand more room of their own for manoeuvre to deepen

cooperation. Even if municipalities in the border region are more positive about the future than those further away from the

border, there are a number of challenges that need to be addressed if they are to make a more successful contribution to

Europeanization.

1 | Introduction

With the process of European integration, a specific multilevel

governance structure has developed in Europe, resulting in a

“reallocation of authority upward, downward, and sideways

from central states”(Hooghe and Marks 2003, p. 233) and an

increased importance of decentralization and regionalization

(Abels and Battke 2019). With regard to the latter development,

border regions are of particular importance in the EU. Varying

degrees of interdependence have arisen across national borders

in the fields of the economy, work, everyday life, and leisure

(Medeiros 2018; Opiłowska and Roose 2015; Wassenberg

et al. 2020; Wassenberg 2024). Exemplified in cross‐border in-

itiatives, the formation of new networks and institutions, and

sometimes transnational identities (Heidenreich 2019a), these

processes of horizontal Europeanization form the focus of our

present research. Our key thesis is that regional and local actors

play an important role in bringing Europeanization to life

(Büttner et al. 2019; Gröbe et al. 2023; Guderjan and

Verhelst 2021; Reiter et al. 2024). At the same time, involve-

ment in decisions at higher levels must not be disregarded:

regional and municipal decision‐makers have to deal ‘top‐down’

This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly

cited.

© 2025 The Authors. Contemporary European Politics published by University Association for Contemporary European Studies and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

1of13Contemporary European Politics, 2025; 3:e70024

https://doi.org/10.1002/cep4.70024