Acting with EU Instruments at The Subnational Level: Towards a Reappropriation of EU Tools by Local Actors? A Case Study Around The European Social Funds and its Implementation in the Wallonia Region (Belgium)

Since 1988, EU instruments such as the Structural funds are managed and implemented at the domestic level by subnational actors The EU technical and administrative tools required to implement those funds are specifics: project application, accounting standards, macro-economic evaluation etc. Local administrative and political actors have to adapt their daily work and practices to those specific requirements, compared to their peculiar local environment. Therefore, at the crossroads between the sociology of European policy, policy instruments and the territorial governance, it is extremely relevant to question how local actors reappropriate those funds and how they influence their implementation. Do they fit with EU objectives? Or do they adapt the instrument to their local realities? To answer those questions, I use an in-depth qualitative method based on semi-structured interviews with local administrative and political actors around a case study, the implementation of the European Social Fund in Wallonia Region (Belgium).