The objective of this paper is to focus on one aspect of European regional integration which has been given insufficient attention so far by scholars and policy analysts alike. In particular, the question which this articles attempts to answer is how to nurture the development of sustainable trans-border regional cooperation and trans-border integration. The large majority of existing regional studies focus on competitiveness of intra-national regions like Baden-Würtemberg (South-Western Germany) or Lombardy (Northern Italy).