Abstract
This chapter presents two detailed case studies of operational programmes with absorption problems from the 2007–2013 financing period. It builds on the combination of conditions detected in the fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis in chapter four to formulate a causal mechanism for absorption problems, and then specifies empirical observations to test this mechanism. The mechanism is tested in two process tracing case studies, the Czech OP Environment and the Romanian OP Transport. The chapter closes again with a detailed discussion of the findings and their contribution.
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Notes
- 1.
In contrast to the data set observations which were needed for the QCA.
- 2.
The only bigger programme in the Czech Republic is OP Transport with a total allocation of EUR 5774 million (CZ 2007b: 158).
- 3.
Tomáš Podivínský remained during his short stint as minister member of the KDU-ČSL, but his position was “expert rather than party member” (Linek 2014: 100), thus turning him not only into an interim, but also independent candidate who is not counted.
- 4.
For example, if a project aims at building something, it is not before the selection of the construction company that would execute the project that the beneficiary would receive the formal confirmation that the project can benefit from EU funds.
- 5.
Interviews were conducted with ministerial officials, NGO representatives, and policy experts in 2014 and 2015. In order to guarantee confidentiality, neither the names nor the exact functions of interviewees are disclosed. Still, in Appendix II a list is provided including all interview partners, dates of interviews, as well as their more general position (official, expert, civil society).
- 6.
The N + rules specify that funds provided by the EU will be lost if not used latest two (N + 2) or three (N + 3) years after the year they were allocated (see Sect. 2.1 for further information).
- 7.
The Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T) is an EC programme for the creation of transport infrastructure with the “overreaching goal of European competitiveness, job creation and cohesion” (European Commission 2016).
- 8.
All three are even located in the same building in Bucharest.
- 9.
The case study is based in parts on interviews with insiders to the implementation process in Romania . Interviews were conducted with ministerial officials, NGO representatives, and policy experts in 2014 and 2015. In order to guarantee confidentiality, neither the names nor the exact functions of interviewees are disclosed. Still, in Appendix II a list is provided including all interview partners, dates of interviews, as well as their more general position (official, expert, civil society).
- 10.
It seems that not even official evaluators had for their work on the Romanian transport sector all of this information available, as a report stresses the alternation of directors on the basis of director’s changing signatures on official documents at different points in time (RO 2011b: 52).
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Hagemann, C. (2019). A Causal Mechanism for Absorption Problems. In: EU Funds in the New Member States. Palgrave Studies in European Union Politics. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-02092-7_5
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