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European integration and devolution of power to the regional level are two of the most important phenomena which have affected the European states over the last thirty years. Their taking place more or less simultaneously has naturally raised the question of whether there is a causal connection between them, ie whether the process of supra-state integration generates or increases demands for regional self-government which lead to processes of regionalisation.

The question has been present in the literature for a long time, with the first works addressing it published in the mid-1970s1 but no rigorous theoretical and empirical analysis of the impact of the European dimension on a case of demand for regional self-government has, to my knowledge, so far been conducted. There are numerous suggestions that there is indeed a positive causal relationship between European integration and demands for regional …