Poliarchie / Polyarchies volume 8 n. 1/2025

This paper examines the role of women in European Territorial Cooperation (ETC) projects addressing climate neutrality and environmental sustainability. Grounded in European union cohesion policy, ETC programs aim to enhance regional integration through cross-border collaboration, with increasing attention to gender equality. The analysis highlights how women are not only beneficiaries but also key actors in driving ecological transition and innovation. Drawing on data from the Gender equality index and Eurobarometer surveys, the article explores persistent structural inequalities and societal stereotypes, underlining the added value of female leadership in environmental governance. It reviews best practices from Interreg projects where women engage in training, green entrepreneurship, social innovation, and decision-making processes. These projects demonstrate how women contribute to sustainable development in rural and marginal areas. Finally, the study argues that integrating gender mainstreaming into environmental policies is essential for a just, inclusive, and effective ecological transition across European regions.

The article traces the evolution of the concept of climate neutrality, from early scientific theories on the Anthropocene and chaos theory to the European Green Deal. It analyses how the scientific community and international agreements – from the IPCC (1988) to the Paris Agreement (201)5 – have defined global targets to limit warming to 1.5-2°C above pre-industrial levels. Key climate risks identified include glacier melt, sea level rise, extreme weather events, and uneven geographic impacts. The EU’s Green deal is presented as a systemic response to four interconnected environmental crises (climate change, biodiversity loss, pollution, and resource consumption), through integrated strategies, and investments. European territorial cooperation is highlighted as a key driver for local implementation of the Green deal, enabling coordination across administrative borders. The Upper Adriatic region is showcased as a flagship example, with eleven projects addressing climate neutrality supported by cross-border programs between Italy, Slovenia, and Croatia. These initiatives focus on circular economy, renewable energy, sustainable mobility, and biodiversity conservation. A qualitative study under the CO ADRIA Interreg project reveals strong knowledge of EU climate policies among stakeholders, with the industrial sector prioritizing infrastructure investments over awareness campaigns due to rising pressure to reduce carbon footprints. The article concludes by stressing that territorial cooperation will be essential for achieving climate neutrality by 2050.

This article explores the evolution and current role of territorial cooperation in Europe, highlighting its dual institutional anchoring in the European Union and the Council of Europe. While often seen as an elusive objective, territorial cooperation is emerging as a key driver for sustainable development and cohesion, especially in border regions. Through a focus on legal instruments such as Interreg and the European groupings of territorial cooperation (EGTC), the paper traces both institutional advances and enduring obstacles – especially in the context of recent global crises and energy transition. Particular attention is given to the Italy-Slovenia cross-border cooperation framework and to the strategic role of Friuli Venezia Giulia, both as a border region and as a laboratory of innovative governance. The article concludes that, while territorial cooperation never seems to work – until it does – it remains essential for addressing transboundary challenges in an era of overlapping crises.

The rise of technocratic ministers in Italy represents an increasingly relevant phenomenon: in fact, it has been evident since the early nineties and has reached its apex during the 2010s. To assess the growing presence and significance of technocrats in Italian governments, we consider three major arguments: the role of critical junctures (crises), the impact of formateur’s strength, and the relevance of long-term systemic factors (complexity of policy-making; party decline). Thanks to an updated dataset on the Italian case (2001-2023) and employing a fresh taxonomy combining partisanship and expertise, the article provides a more accurate picture of ministers’ profiles in Italy, highlighting a role of expert ministers greater than expected and identifying a hierarchical relation among causal factors: critical junctures and formateur’s strength may represent proximate causes of the growing presence of technocratic ministers in Italy; however, these factors are heavily influenced by long-term causes such as the party decline.

In recent years, there has been growing interest in the social risks associated with the energy transition in a context of market liberalization, with a particular focus on the issue of energy poverty. This article aims to contribute to the debate by proposing an innovative approach through the construction of a theoretical framework centered on the identification of four conditions through which citizens may find themselves confronted with energy systems: integration, vulnerability, assistance and exclusion. This theoretical framework articulates social complexity beyond the simple dichotomy of energy poverty/non-poverty, highlighting how the transition, which is developing through neo-liberal policies, generates differentiated social stratifications. The four conditions, which we will call ‘zones of energy citizenship’, provide analytical tools to guide energy policies so that they are targeted at the specificities of each social zone.