The EU Structural and Cohesion Funds: Solution or Smokescreen to Europe’s Regional Disparities?
The EU has long had a goal of ‘reducing economic and social disparities.’ Since the reforms to the European Structural Funds in 1988 the Commission has encouraged enhanced subnational actor participation in policy-making, although subsequent reforms in 1993 and 1999 have been seen as attempts to ‘re...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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European Institute of Romania
2004-07-01
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| Series: | Romanian Journal of European Affairs |
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| Online Access: | https://rjea.ier.gov.ro/wp-content/uploads/articole/RJEA_Vol4_No2_The_EU_Structural_and_Cohesion_Funds_Solution_or_Smokescreen_to_Europes_Regional_Disparities.pdf |
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| Summary: | The EU has long had a goal of ‘reducing economic and social disparities.’ Since the reforms to the European Structural Funds in 1988 the Commission has encouraged enhanced subnational actor participation in policy-making, although subsequent reforms in 1993 and 1999 have been seen as attempts to ‘renationalize’ the policy. This paper argues that the minimal effect the Funds have had on the ground results not from renationalization but from inherent differences between multilevel actors on one of the key principles of Structural Funding i.e. partnership. The research findings show that whilst intergovernmental mechanisms have not changed since 1988, neither has the acceptance of the need for partnership between national and regional actors, especially in federal or quasi-federal states. The inability of the Funds to reduce disparities and the lack of understanding of partnership both provide lessons for new entrants to the EU: transforming domestic governance arrangements to accommodate the requirements of EU regional funding may only be successful if there are wider understandings of changes in ‘governance’; Europe’s poorer regions have not been able to close the gap with their richer neighbours with the implication that the regions of the Accession States will be in no better position in ten years time than they are now when compared to other regions throughout the EU. |
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| ISSN: | 1582-8271 1841-4273 |