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This article examines the role of political elites in the Europeanisation of regional governance, arguing that domestic conceptions of governance shape the way in which elites view their participation in European Union (EU) decision-making. It compares and contrasts the experiences of Scotland and Catalonia, two 'regions' that have recently obtained greater political autonomy. The article begins by examining how European integration encouraged the decentralisation of power, providing contextual information on the devolution process and the current status of domestic constitutional arrangements in the United Kingdom and Spain. It then examines how political elites are seeking greater participatory rights within the EU, evaluating the effectiveness of domestic and European channels of influence. Despite lacking formalised points of access to the EU policy process, the article argues that Catalan and Scottish elites have been successful in placing issues on the EU agenda and sustaining the debate on regional participation in EU decision-making. While the gradual formation of institutionalised channels of co-operation could lead to greater influence in the EU policy process over the long term, it would be more appropriate in the short-term to focus on the agenda-setting powers of regional elites.

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Covid-19 is undoubtedly a regional crisis, spatially uneven in its impacts. While it is too soon to talk about a transition 'from pandemic to recovery', with attention switching to regional development priorities and the implications of Covid-19 on regional policy, planning and development, increasingly we will need to focus on regions in their recovery phase. In this article we ask four leading researchers what this recovery phase will mean for regions. Opening the way for future discussion perspectives on regional economic recovery, resilience planning, building healthy and just places, and overcoming the 'shadow' pandemic indicate how this recovery phase is unfolding and what we would benefit from doing differently to 'build back better' and overcome 'wicked problems' preventing more inclusive, just and sustainable regional futures.

IntroductionDevolution in the United Kingdom is clearly an ongoing process, which is why it is vital to compare the experiences of other European countries that share longer histories of devolution and can offer potentially important insights for the future trajectories of change in the UK. Thus far, however, the debate on devolution in the UK has been rather parochial and little attention has been paid to the experiences of decentralisation elsewhere (Mitchell, 2002). This paper, however, bucks that trend because it focuses directly upon the situation in Spain. The Spanish case can offer important lessons for the UK because of its relatively recent history of devolution (since 1978) and extensive decentralisation. In particular, the so-called`historic communities' of Catalonia, the Basque Country, Galicia, and Andaluc|¨a (1) were granted more autonomy than the other Spanish regions in what is commonly referred to as a model of`asymmetrical federalism' (Moreno, 2001).It is precisely such a model of asymmetrical autonomy that has been adopted in the UK since 1997, with the creation of the Scottish Parliament and the Welsh and Northern Irish Assemblies that have been granted a greater degree of autonomy compared with the English regions, which following the publication of the White Paper in May 2002 have the possibility to opt for elected regional assemblies (Cabinet Office and DTLR, 2002). Clearly, the implications of this asymmetry remain unclear, especially for England, which is why comparisons with the Spanish case are particularly important and timely.