Chances and challenges of horizontal Europeanization in border regions: Lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic in the SaarLorLux border region

The process of European Integration has made the perceived restrictive force of state borders vanish. In border regions, labelled by the European Commission as living labs of European Integration, local, and regional ties have developed, especially since the implementation of the Schengen Agreement. This is the case, among others, in the Greater Region with its core area SaarLorLux (between Germany, France, and Luxemburg), where borders had become bridges allowing people to live, work, run errands, etc. in neighbouring countries. Various cross-border institutions, political and personal networks testify to this. Local and regional ties were however suddenly interrupted when Nation States reintroduced border restrictions in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. The border restrictions gave rise to numerous new questions, but they brought to light all the challenges that were and are inherent to cross-border cooperation. The COVID-19 pandemic thus acted like a magnifying glass under which the challenges of cross-border regional connections, but also opportunities in favour of greater cohesion, became clearly visible. In our paper, we outline the role of the subnational level for cross-border relations in the SaarLorLux region during the COVID-19-Pandemic. To what extent did local and regional cohesion prove significant for cross-border relations in the SaarLorLux region? What lessons towards cross-border resilience can be derived from these findings? And how can the role of border regions for horizontal Europeanization thus be evaluated? Our empirical results from qualitative interviews with political and administrative stakeholders and a local newspaper analysis show, among others, that social cohesion manifested itself in many forms in the border region during the COVID-19 pandemic – on a civic and political level – and thus made a significant contribution to the resilience of the cooperation. It was precisely at the individual, local, and regional level that challenges of the pandemic could be handled and counteracted successfully.