As European cities and metropolitan regions have come to operate in an increasingly complex and competitive environment, regional cooperation is becoming ever more important. 'Empowering Metropolitan Regions through New Forms of Cooperation' is an Euricur (European Institute for Comparative Urban Research) research project which analyses the development of cross-border and cross-sector partnerships in various European cities and regions. It provides insight into the factors of failure and success in relation to the coalition-forming process by comparing various attempts at this in European regions. The comparative analysis of these attempts to establish cooperation between municipalities sheds light on the importance of a regional approach to governance in dealing with challenges that cross administrative borders.