Multilevel governance in practice: Actors and institutional competition shaping EU regional policy in France

In order to analyze multi-level governance in practice, this article presents the initial results of an empirical study on EU policy officers in French local authorities. This research shows the limits of theories that claim that the development of this group is an essential channel of Europeanization processes. Owing to their specialization and claim of a specific competence, these professionals tend to hold a monopoly over the dissemination of specifically European standards and skills. My analysis also nuances the hypothesis of their multi-level mobility and the ability of these agents to promote significant exchanges between government levels. Lastly, by emphasizing the constraints of this intermediation activity, I highlight a largely unexplored point in research on interinstitutional mediation: the situations of ‘double bind’ to which these positions tend to lead and that prevail in the agents’ practices.