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Abstract: For much of the European integration process, local authorities have been on the legal margins. Yet many amongst this group, and cities in particular, consider themselves as important players in realising the Union’s overarching policy objectives. This view is slowly but surely fi nding traction with the EU’s political institutions. This article suggests that the future architecture of the European Union’s (EU’s) operating system will evince a rapprochement between the socio-economic clout of local authorities, notably cities, and their legal-political recognition at Union level. It further suggests that there is room for greater conceptual clarity along two lines when interrogating the future of the vertical axis of the Union’s governance structure. First, the local tier should be disaggregated, with cities treated as a distinct subset of the category of subnational authorities that warrant attention in their own right. Second, the relationship between the EU and cities should be dissected further to develop a more fi ne-grained map of the possible ways in which both levels interact and the norms and incentives that shape those interactions. To this end, a six-fold taxonomy is developed that covers cities in their guise as (i) implementation agents; (ii) value communities; (iii) front-line decisionmakers; (iv) democracy enhancers; (v) policy developers; and (vi) advocates of urban interests in EU decision-making. Finally, this article addresses the methodological implications of an urban turn in European legal scholarship.
Keywords: local authorities; cities; implementation agents; value communities; local democracy; policy-making; urban interests
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