The Reform of Cohesion Policy in the 2014–2020 Programming Period and the Regional Smart Specialization Strategy

Author(s):  
Valeria Fedeli ◽  
Camilla Lenzi ◽  
Paola Briata ◽  
Luisa Pedrazzini
Economies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 138
Author(s):  
Paulo Miguel Madeira ◽  
Mário Vale ◽  
Julián Mora-Aliseda

Smart specialization strategies are a new EU approach to cohesion policy, meant to deliver growth and development at EU national and regional level. Bearing in mind its focus on place-based development strategies, this paper intends to shed some light on its appropriateness to tackle uneven development and regional growth divergence. The paper showcases Spanish Extremadura growth trajectory. Extremadura is a poor region in the European context that between 2008 and 2014 diverged from the EU average, despite being eligible for EU funding as a convergence region by cohesion policy. In the 2014–2020 programming period, there was a positive dynamic at the beginning, but from 2017 onwards convergence stopped, which indicates that thematic and regional programmes have not delivered results or have not compensated for higher growth level of other Spanish regions. Moreover, research and innovation strategies for smart specialization (RIS3) seem to have limited impacts on place-based economic transformation in less developed regions. From this example, the suitability of the smart specialisation strategy as the core of cohesion policy in the programming period is discussed. It concludes that this strategy is interesting for intermediate development regions with some industrial base but does not seem appropriate as a convergence driver for poorer regions.


2016 ◽  
Vol 5 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 64-70
Author(s):  
Miroslav Raicov ◽  
Andrea Fehér ◽  
Tabita Adamov ◽  
Sorin Stanciu

The growing competition between different regions, thus their activities performed under both within and outside the European Union represents a fact of the "globalized" world in which we are living. For many years, the regional disparities in terms of development level and life quality were subject to national policies of the Member States. Many improvements have been observed since the European Union initiated the policy of reducing them. The Cohesion Policy of the European Union has an unique irreplaceable role in the coagulation of integrated development strategies, comprising interventions in different areas, such as infrastructure, research and innovation, employment, education, business, environment protection, climate changes and energy efficiency within a package of coherent policies addressing to regional or even local context, being one of the most visible policies, especially in what regards the relationship with citizens. Thus, the Cohesion Policy target is represented by supporting the process of reducing the disparities between the regions and Member States more developed of the European Union and the ones that are less developed.


Author(s):  
Natalia Dominiak

The aim of the article is to discuss issues related to the development of tourism in the context of the possibility of financial support available from cohesion policy funds in the current financial perspective for the years 2014-2020. The particular attention was paid to the multifaceted nature of modern tourism and the directions of changes in the use of EU funds, referring to the completed programming period 2007-2013. An attempt was also made to indicate the significance of tourism in the section of the national economy of Poland and in the European Union, concentrating on its interdisciplinary character. Characteristics of cohesion policy, its goals and principles of functioning were made. The article is of a review nature, which means that the authors’ own materials and empirical material from the literature of the subject were used. The figures were obtained from reports published by the Chancellery of the Prime Minister of the Council of Ministers. It was found out that the amount of allocated funds for cohesion policy among all European Union countries in 2014-2020 is the highest for Poland and amounts to EUR 72.9 billion. There is an increase in the amount of funds allocated from the European Union to Poland, compared to the amount of allocated funds in the 2007-2013 perspective. It was also pointed out that the cohesion policy instruments mentioned above only indirectly contribute to the development of tourism, as the financing for 2014-2020 lacks programs and activities entirely dedicated to tourism.


2011 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 27-45
Author(s):  
Krzysztof Lewandowski

The objective of this paper is to present the contribution of Community regional policy funds to achieving socio-economic cohesion of Italian regions eligible under Objective 1, as well as to discuss future development barriers and opportunities of these regions. The paper also provides a description of Italy's adjustment to the Community policy, the funds exploited by cohesive regions during the 2000-2006 programming period and their efficiency in the elimination of regional disparities.


2016 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 41-52
Author(s):  
Mindaugas Butkus ◽  
Kristina Matuzevičiūtė

Abstract Attention to the harmonised economic growth by promoting regional economic convergence was paid in the 1960s, at the commencement of European economic integration. It served as a basis for initiation of programs intended to reduce disparities among regions. For the current programming period (2014-2020) over 350 billion euro was allocated to promote cohesion (more than 340 billion for 2007-2013 and about 213 billion for 2000-2006) and a considerable part of that funding went specially to promote regional convergence; therefore, the analysis of regional convergence in the EU countries is essential due to both economic and financial reasons. Regional policy can be considered successful if regional disparities are found to be decreasing; however, research on convergence/divergence issue has not provided any unambiguous conclusions. We aim to enrich this field of analysis by incorporating cultural dimension while analysing the factors influencing regional convergence. In order to identify a causal link between culture and economic outcomes, we define culture as the customary beliefs and values that ethnic, religious and social groups transmit almost unchanged from generation to generation. Our research hypothesis is that regional policy impact on regional convergence differs between groups of countries characterised by historically diverse cultural experience. Using panel data approach like FD and covering the two last programming periods along with a set of variables to control country-specific economic environment, we investigate whether the success of Cohesion policy has depended on cultural differences in the north, south, west and central-east groups of European countries.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (11) ◽  
pp. 5799
Author(s):  
Adriana Nishimura ◽  
Ana Moreira ◽  
Manuel Au-Yong-Oliveira ◽  
Maria José Sousa

The European Structural and Investment Funds (ESIF) are the main instrument of the European Union (EU) Cohesion Policy to promote convergence, economic growth and reduce imbalances between EU members. The objectives of the 2014–2020 programming period follow the agenda of the Europe 2020 Strategy to promote smart, sustainable and inclusive growth of EU members. Since before joining the EU, in 1986, until the end of the Portugal 2020 Partnership Agreement (PT2020), Portugal will have received more than EUR 130 billion. Have the subsidies that Portugal has received been well applied? Our study fills a gap in the literature by portraying citizens’ perceptions about the effectiveness of EU funds for the development of the country and its regions. The study is quantitative in nature, and a non-probabilistic sample of 1119 participants answered our survey. A high proportion (76%) of the respondents considered that EU funds contributed to the development of the region where they live, although a significant percentage of the respondents (more than half) considered that there may be corruption in Portugal. The Portuguese also mentioned the existence of practices such as favouritism and lobbying regarding the approval of projects. Our findings are supported by the literature, which refers to “lost opportunities” in the inefficient application of ESIF, while recognising that EU funds have played a significant role in Portugal’s development over the last three decades.


Economies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 103
Author(s):  
Mindaugas Butkus ◽  
Alma Maciulyte-Sniukiene ◽  
Renata Macaitiene ◽  
Kristina Matuzeviciute

This paper contributes to a wide range of studies on Cohesion policy (CP) outcomes by proposing a new approach to directly examine its effect on convergence. We extended the non-linear specification of the conditional β-convergence model by introducing 2- and 3-way multiplicative terms and institutions as moderators not only for growth but also for convergence. By developing and calculating conditional slope coefficients and their standard errors, we found empirical evidence that institutional quality can scale down the diminishing marginal impact of funding and even trigger its increase. Our evidence regarding changes to disaggregation levels, programming period, and CP outcomes is robust. Our research findings suggest a redistribution of funds over the 2021–2027 period in favour of projects dedicated to enhancing institutional quality.


2019 ◽  
pp. 49
Author(s):  
Γιώργος Ανδρέου

Drawing on historical institutionalism, the paper seeks to compare the imprint of existing EU cohesion policy with the imprint formed on the basis of the policy reform proposals for the 2021-2027 programming period. It is deduced that the proposed changes are incremental in nature, seek to perpetuate the subjection of the goal of cohesion to the “new economic governance” and burden cohesion policy with additional general objectives. In addition, the distributivedimension of the proposals is problematic, as drastic reductions of funds are envisaged for 10 out of the 12 Central and Eastern European member states. The final conclusion is that: a) the proposed distribution of funds is politicallyunfeasible and b) the proposed reforms, while designed to limit complexity at the level of policy means, do not suffi ciently address “goal congestion” and do not event attempt to resolve the compatibility problem between the goal of cohesion – i.e. the reduction of territorial disparities – and the EU’s strategic ambitions. 


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document