The first aim of this dissertation is to determine whether and how governance is practiced in transnational spaces where no central actor with "command and control" powers is present. This will be done via analysis of local government organizations (LGOs) and the connected instruments of governance.
The research relates to the current discussion about a reform of present governance practice in the European multilevel system and how local-level actors and their respective associations can fit into this institutional arrangement. According to this the second aim of this dissertation is to show how the relationships between the actors in the European governance are influenced by LGOs and their instruments of governance. In particular, I am concerned with how direct relations are established between the local level and the European level, what role the LGOs play in that and, in turn, how this affects the options of national-level actors.
This leads me to two main research questions:

• What kind of governance instruments are used successfully by LGOs, and how are these instruments influenced by certain institutional preconditions?
•  How are the LGOs integrated into the practice of European governance, and what impact does this have on the actors already involved?

These research questions will be analyzed on the basis of the two elementary functions of an LGO, namely, the inner steering function within the LGOs and the lobbying function they have vis-à-vis the other actors in the multilevel system.
To this end, I have selected the two LGOs who claim to be the legitimate representatives of the European local authorities as the objects of my research: the Council of European Municipalities and Regions (CEMR) and Eurocities. The CEMR unites 44 large national associations with more than 100 000 local and regional authorities throughout Europe (¬http://www.ccre.org/mis_an.html, 26.02.03); it is a "classical" international umbrella organization. Eurocities, on the other hand, is a polycentric, non-hierarchical, horizontal network, representing more than 100 member cities and over 81 million citizens (¬http://www.eurocities.org/memberSet.asp, 26.02.03).
I will carry out a comparative analysis on the various levels of these organizations: the supranational level, the sub-network level, the local level and the European governance level. The specific criteria of this analysis will relate to the sections:

• foundation and development,
• capacities and institutionalisation,
• goal setting and strategic planning,
• implementation and internal process control,
• outcome.

This research design allows me to determine the performance of the governance instruments for each organizational type on each level.
Although my analysis includes a survey of relevant literature and documents, the main information resource is comprised of interviews conducted with persons in crucial/leading positions within the organizations and the European Union. For the analysis of the local and the sub-network level, case studies in two cities will be carried out in France, Germany, and the United Kingdom.