Reinventing Cohesion: The Future of European Structural Policy
This study questions three key assumptions underlying EU Structural Policy by contending, that the regional disparities in EU15 are much smaller than they are normally reported to be; that Structural Policy interventions have a very limited impact on convergence; and that convergence has a very limited impact on cohesion.
Three options to the current policy framework merit serious discussion: One is renationalisation. A second option is reallocation within the EU budget in favour of currently underfunded policy areas, such as internal security, research, risk surveillance and external relations. A third option is a radical reform of Structural Policy, discarding the intermediate objective of convergence but giving greater emphasis to the ultimate goal of cohesion. Under this formula, support would have a transnational dimension.