Lithuanian Annual Strategic Review

A theory-ridden case study analysis and institutionalisation of regional cooperation, empirically evaluates the existing mechanisms for regional cooperation by specifying functions and limits of the action of the European Commission's Directorate General for Regional Policy, the Committee of Regions the European Free Trade Association, and the European Economic Area. Later on, the investigation looks for opportunities for the development of regional cooperation between the EU and EF^A Member States. In essence, modus operandi of the Directorate general for Regional Policy, the Committee of Regions, on the one hand, and the European Free Trade Association and the European Economic Area, on the other, are quite incompatible. The former entities are preoccupied with cohesion and regional cooperation mostly among the countries and sub-national units of the European Union, whereas the latter two are primarily driven by the participation in the common internal market. Nevertheless, these crossing each other functional trajectories can make their ends meet only given the existent political willpower to develop cooperation since the existing institutional frameworks provide certain tangents for enhanced cooperation.