The importance of cohesion policy for the development of the railway system of the Republic of Croatia

Cohesion policy is one of the European Union’s policies, which provides Member States with the possibility of financial support under the European Structural and Investment Funds (ESI Funds) as well as with the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF), to reduce disparities and encourage the development of less developed Member States. By funding through Cohesion policy funds, the European Union seeks to accomplish a prosperous economy by achieving appropriate European standards in the individual Member States. Cohesion policy emphasizes the development of transport and mobility, and in particular, the investment in key transport links and sections of international importance through the revitalization of railway infrastructure in line with European Union standards. The railway system of the Republic of Croatia has been under-invested for many years, which is why it has not followed the requirements and needs of the development of the transport market. Membership in the European Union has provided the Republic of Croatia with co-financing for the development of the railway system. This paper will analyse the current investments in the railway system and the development potentials that are planned to be achieved in the next programming period. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to analyse the importance of the Cohesion Policy of the European Union for the development of the railway system of the Republic of Croatia in the Programming period 2021-2027. The analysis aims to identify opportunities for further development of the railway system as the ‘cleanest’ transport industry, guided by the need to reduce harmful emissions following the European Green Deal by using funds from the European Structural and Investment Funds.

Perceptions on the Implementation of the Integrated Territorial Investment Mechanism (ITI) and Its Impact on Sustainable Development and Resilience of Danube Delta

The Integrated Territorial Investment mechanism (ITI) was implemented in Romania to the territory of ITI Danube Delta in the 2014-2020 programming period. In this respect, the present article aims to analyze the process of implementation of the ITI mechanism on the Danube Delta territory in order to find out the impact of its implementation on the so­cio-economic development of the area and on its re­silience, as well as the main problems encountered by the responsible authorities for managing this pro­gramme and the beneficiaries of these funds. The research methodology consists of a survey conduct­ed by using two questionnaires designed by the au­thors. The study had 42 participants from the fund managers’ category and 71 participants from the beneficiaries’ group. The study revealed a positive perception among all the participants which consid­ered that ITI impacts the resilience of the Danube Delta territory to a medium extent. The most import­ant problems encountered in the implementation process were the pre-financing process, the guides’ conditions that are not adapted to the beneficiaries’ needs and the public procurement process. The re­search revealed a high degree of satisfaction from both types of respondents regarding the ITI mech­anism and a good relation between the managing institutions and beneficiaries.

Smart Specialisation Strategies and Regional Convergence: Spanish Extremadura after a Period of Divergence

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.

Counterbalancing the Development Territorial Disparities in the Implementation of the Community-Led Local Development EU Approach in Romania

LEADER is a rural development method based on a participative approach, which was tailored in 1991 as a complement to the traditional common agricultural policy (CAP) measures. One of its most important objectives is to reduce the differences between rural and urban areas by building on local knowledge and potential. The aim of the present paper is to identify what are the most important characteristics of the LAGs that can counterbalance the existing economic disparities in the rural regions. The research was conducted in the northwest development region of Romania (2014–2020 programming period), using the principal component analysis and the hierarchical cluster analysis. Two types of data were collected: indicators of performance, such as the number of projects contracted and jobs created, were used to assess the success of the method, while the territorial and LAG characteristics were used to explain these results. The findings confirm the presence of an unequal distribution of LEADER support in favor of the most urbanized and developed areas. However, the results also show that the experience and economic and administrative capacity of LAGs could help counterbalance the influence of the territorial features previously mentioned, and therefore to reduce the gap between them and the more developed groups.

AGRIBUSINESS IN BULGARIA - STATE AND PROBLEMS

With the end of the second programming period of Bulgaria's membership in the European Union and the harmonization of the national legislation with the directives establishing the common agricultural policy, the debate about changes and forthcoming strategic moves to put the business in the agricultural segment on the basis of dynamic, economically justified and technologically guaranteed progress is becoming more and more insistent. In the context of the conceptual scheme and in view of the new economic realities, the aim of the present study is to trace the place of the agrarian business in the Bulgarian economy, outlining its state and problems.

EUROPEAN UNION INITIATIVES TO PROMOTE ORGANIC FARMING

Organic farming plays an important role in achieving the ambitious goals set out in the European Green Pact, the farm-to-table strategy and the biodiversity strategy. The aim of the report is to present future EU initiatives to promote the sector through the prism of EU legislation. The set goal will be achieved through an analysis of the official documents and discussions on the set initiatives in the new programming period of the CAP in 2021-2027.

A New Approach to Examine Non-Linear and Mediated Growth and Convergence Outcomes of Cohesion Policy

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.

RESULTS AND PERSPECTIVES IN IMPLEMENTING REGIONAL OPERATIONAL PROGRAM

Increasing the efficiency of structural funds and the rate of absorption is one of the opportunity that Romanian economy has to maximize. The article presents a general analysis on the absorption of Regional Operational Program for the financial programming period 2007-2013. This evolution is being regarded in the context of improving the efficiency of the Regional Operational Program for the present financial programming period 2014-2020, in order to use the experience accumulated and to increase the absorption rate.

European Cohesion Policy and Evaluating the Impact of Evidence-Based Policy

In the 2014–2020 programming period, the cohesion policy focuses more on results and evaluation of programs based on facts. Due to the Commission policies, an expansion of cohesion policy counterfactual impact evaluation of programmes with new approaches can be expected in the future. In this paper, the focus is on the calculation of the impact of received European cohesion funds on the revenue of companies in Slovenian municipalities one/two years after the receipt of cohesion funds for the 2007–2013 period. Two development priorities that affect company revenue – Enterprise competitiveness and research excellence and Promoting entrepreneurship and adaptability are considered. The effect of the use of the European cohesion funds on company revenue in Slovenian municipalities is positive for 2009 and 2010 and negative for all other years examined. The results of the research can serve to policy-makers to reduce the economic, social and territorial disparities in less developed European countries and regions therefore reaching balanced regional development.