Multi-level empowerment strategies: Regionalist parties’ territory-oriented legislative initiative in the regional, statewide and European parliamentary arenas

Abstract

In the European Union (EU), parties operate on the regional, the state, and the supranational level. Exploring how parties behave legislatively from a cross-level perspective, this paper evaluates the territory-oriented legislation introduced by three regionalist parties – Südtiroler Volkspartei, Femu a Corsica, and Plaid Cymru – in all parliaments they occupy (from 2018 to 2022). The parties initiate greater self-government, autonomy safeguards, and concrete region-oriented policies in the regional and statewide parliaments. Meanwhile, many specific, state-addressed proposals are generalised to all European regions in the Committee of the Regions and the European Parliament (as are all demands directed to the EU) and concern the protection of ethnic minorities, regional development, and regional involvement in EU policies. Drawing on novel parliamentary data, this three-level study reveals multi-level legislative strategies of a distinct party family aimed at territorial empowerment while exposing available legislative channels and routes of interaction across the levels of governance.