Regionalism involves an increasing tendency for regions to identify and pursue interests divergent from those expressed in international and European organizations by the central institutions of their state. The divergence reflects the diminishing capacity of the state, in the face of growing global interdependence, to act as a coherent entity whose collective interests can be represented as expressed by central institutions. The constitutional implications of this divergence for the role of Member States within the European Union are considered in the present article. The essential question considered is whether, at least as regards matters of particular interest to certain regions, the need is implied for the Union to develop a more pluralist decision-making system than the present one. The question will be considered having regard to the relationship between the legal concept of state sovereignty and the political science literature on the `coupling' of decision-making arenas.
European Public Law