The European Regional Conference and the Council of the European Communities are both pursuing a regional policy concept which, on the one hand, focuses on the promotion of economic activity in areas of scanty development and, on the other, aims at curbing rather than promoting the development...

This article analyses the "partnership principle" - which is of particular importance for multilevel governance interpretations of European integration - as it evolved in EU regional policy-making. After sketching the crucial analytical lines of the current debate on "partnership" on the example...