| Summary: | In 2014 the Swedish government concluded from an investigation that Swedish insights into the EU were lacking. Therefore, in 2016 the EU-handshake was an initiative from the government to strengthen the relationship between the local level and the EU. The EU handshake was non-mandatory and where municipalities joined. In 2018 the Swedish Association of Local Authorities and Regions (SALAR) analysed the results of the municipalities and regions with the EU-handshake and concluded that 90 percent of the work was done in collaboration with actors from vertical-and horizontal levels. The study from SALAR did not however discuss how different actors from different levels made it possible for the municipalities to carry out their EU-handshake, and there is also no discussion on why the results of the EU-handshake differs. This study is going to concern itself with these knowledge gaps and investigate using a multilevel-governance theory as well as interviews with six municipalities´ from the south of Sweden. This study also provides new insights into municipalities role in EU-related work. The conclusion that can be drawn from this study is that: the relationship to EU has been strengthened through the execution of the municipalities´ EU-handshake with actors from the regional and local level.
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