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In the challenging context created by the ongoing effects of the pandemic combined with the growing pressures of the energy and refugee crises, programme managers are navigating through multiple and often overlapping priorities. Ensuring good implementation and progress towards finalising the 2014-20 programmes, as well as preparing their orderly closure are among the key tasks…
R&I plays an important role in mitigating the impact of ‘crisis’ situations, contributing to economic growth, and delivering green and digital transitions. Cohesion Policy, especially the Smart Specialisation approach, provides a key instrument for delivering place-based innovation that reflects the strengths and assets of the regions, and addressing the innovation divide in Europe.
This paper presents an overview of how the Community-led Local Development (CLLD) instrument has been used in the EU in the 2014–2020 programming period. It provides a typology of countries applying the options offered by CLLD and illustrates the various ways in which the different eligible EU funds were contributing financially. The article discusses the…
Tourism has been one of the largest and fastest growth sectors in recent decades, making a significant contribution to GDP and employment across European countries and globally. Tourism has a marked territorial dimension through its uneven spatial distribution and diverse impact on the dynamics of regional development and convergence. In this context, regional policy has…
Regional policies across Europe in 2021- 2022 have been operating in a volatile and uncertain environment framed by the continued recovery from COVID-19, the conflict in Ukraine and the cost-of-living crisis. Despite these challenging conditions, an overview of developments in regional policy over the past 12-18 months indicates that strategic thinking has been largely shaped…
In the context of crises that have stretched policymaking and budgetary resources of the EU to their limit, the focus of the past year has been on recovery from the effects of the pandemic, and future resilience – an objective dramatically increased in importance by the impact of the Russia-Ukraine war. As a major part…
Over the course of the last year or so all EU Member States, Norway, Iceland and the UK have designed new regional aid maps and secured their approval under the 2022- 27 Regional Aid Guidelines (RAG). The adoption of the RAG and map approvals have taken place in a period of almost unprecedented upheaval, including…
We develop a novel citizen-centred multi-dimensional approach to public value creation in regional policy. Drawing on 47 citizen focus groups in 16 European regions, public values are analysed through an interpretative comparative approach. Goal attainment is a positive and widely held value. However, evaluations of institutional performance and democratic values are more negative. The findings…
Does the quality of government improve the administrative performance of regions in European Union (EU) Cohesion Policy? This article analyses the relationship between the quality of government and multiple dimensions of administrative performance in Cohesion Policy. Using primary data on government quality combined with EU performance data for the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) in…
The study assesses the EU’s approach to multilingualism in its communications policy. An innovative mixed methods approach is used to investigate compliance with multilingualism obligations and the language regimes and practices of EU institutions, bodies and agencies, especially on EU websites. The fit with the linguistic skills of EU27 residents is also investigated. Policy recommendations…
The beginning of a new year has not meant respite from challenges. ESIF programme managers continue to juggle responsibilities across two programme periods. The tail-end of the 2014-20 programme period remains busy, particularly in terms of monitoring and processing expenditure claims, making payments to beneficiaries and closure arrangements. This workload is now exacerbated by many…
Urban issues have gained increasing prominence over Cohesion Policy programming periods in terms of policy relevance and visibility. The objective of the paper is to take stock of experiences gained in 2014-20 and plans for the 2021-27 period. It focuses on the territorial coverage, thematic orientation and governance of the urban dimension of Cohesion Policy,…
This article investigates the role of European Union Cohesion Policy in the development of European identity, drawing on an original and representative survey in 17 regions across 12 member states. We advance a theoretical model which distinguishes cognitive, instrumental and communicative drivers of identity formation. Contrary to existing scholarship, we find that EU Cohesion Policy…
Helping to inform the set up of the 2021-27 Interreg programmes, a new EPRC report for Interact provides a comprehensive balanced overview of the different approaches to setting up and employing Contact Points in Interreg programmes. The report highlights the different way that Programmes can use contact points in their management and implementation systems and…
This paper brings together evidence of the territorial and policy implications of the COVID-19 pandemic with the long-term strategic thinking in regional policy in the past twelve months. It shows that, in the period 2020-2021, governments dealt both with the immediate unpreceded impacts of the pandemic crisis as well as developments in regional policy that…