Cohesion Policy

Abstract

Cohesion policy marks out one of the most ambitious, complex and misunderstood areas of EU decision-making. It is important in budgetary terms — consuming over a third of the EU budget — but also in its sheer ambition, unintended consequences and wider influence on EU governance. Cohesion policy refers to a set of activities designed to reduce disparities and promote a more even pattern of economic development across the EU. In its broadest sense it means applying cohesion objectives to a range of EU policies (such as competition) and high-level coordination of macroeconomic policy. But its primary tools have been the structural funds, aimed primarily at helping regions suffering from low gross domestic product (GDP), high unemployment, or industrial or agricultural decline (see Table 6.1), and the Cohesion Fund, which reserves funds for infrastructure and environmental projects in four countries — Greece, Ireland, Portugal and Spain — whose GDP is less than 90 per cent of the EU’s average. These policy tools are not designed only to aid ‘regional development’ narrowly defined. By promising solidarity and ‘harmonious development’,¹ they also work (in principle, at least) to create a ‘social space’ or a ‘European wide socioeconomic and political fabric’ (Hooghe 1996b: v).