Comment le droit européen déplace les frontières ? La proposition de règlement visant à lever les obstacles juridiques et administratifs à la coopération transfrontalière

in Annales de Géographie (2020), 733-734

To facilitate the daily management of a cross-border project, the European Commission has developed a proposal for a regulation "on the creation of a mechanism to remove legal and administrative obstacles ... [more ▼]

To facilitate the daily management of a cross-border project, the European Commission has developed a proposal for a regulation "on the creation of a mechanism to remove legal and administrative obstacles in a cross-border context". The latter aims to allow the use of a single law in the context of a cross-border project. This contribution uses legal geography to analyse the originality of this proposal. First, it places it in the context of European integration and the objective of territorial cohesion. Then, it suggests that the proposed ECBM Regulation represents a paradigm shift in two respects. First, it sets up an institutional lever enabling border areas to operationalise cross-border projects and build material appropriation of the cross-border area and thus acts in favour of greater spatial justice. Second, it requires national laws to extend its spatial scope (i.e. extraterritoriality). This regulation suggests than that the construction of European territoriality is achieved in border areas by increasing the porosity of the state territory. [less ▲]