This book was written with several audiences in mind, with the editorial team advancing a reading map and suggestions for the navigation through the chapters in line with the targeted audience. The ...first category that benefits from the results of this book is represented by students. Undergraduate and graduate students enrolled in EU Studies or Public Policy programs - where EU Policies courses are offered in the curricula-will find this book very useful, especially the introductory and theoretical chapters or the case studies examining the role of Cohesion Policy in the EU member states. Scholars with research interests in the field of Public Policies can use this handbook as a valuable teaching resource and make use of the current themes in the critical debates chapters. And not lastly, it is useful for practitioners, for bureaucrats or EU affairs policy advisers employed at the local, regional or national level, interested in consolidating their expertise.
This book was written with several audiences in mind, with the editorial team advancing a reading map and suggestions for the navigation through the chapters in line with the targeted audience. The ...first category that benefits from the results of this book is represented by students. Undergraduate and graduate students enrolled in EU Studies or Public Policy programs - where EU Policies courses are offered in the curricula-will find this book very useful, especially the introductory and theoretical chapters or the case studies examining the role of Cohesion Policy in the EU member states. Scholars with research interests in the field of Public Policies can use this handbook as a valuable teaching resource and make use of the current themes in the critical debates chapters. And not lastly, it is useful for practitioners, for bureaucrats or EU affairs policy advisers employed at the local, regional or national level, interested in consolidating their expertise.
The operationalization of smart specialization policy has been rather limited because a coherent set of analytical tools to guide the policy directives remains elusive. We propose a policy framework ...around the concepts of relatedness and knowledge complexity. We show that diversifying into more complex technologies is attractive but difficult for European Union regions to accomplish. Regions can overcome this diversification dilemma by developing new complex technologies that build on local related capabilities. We use these findings to construct a policy framework for smart specialization that highlights the potential risks and rewards for regions of adopting competing diversification strategies.
This paper makes some contributions to the policy discussion on Covid-19. We present real-time evidence on the effects of the coronavirus crisis on regional employment in Italy, by finding that the ...current shock is producing major adverse consequences in the South and on female occupation. We document that both the absorption and the allocation of the EU funds can sustain the resilience of regional labour markets, by reducing the employment losses at time of Covid-19. We construct regional employment adjustment scenarios based on information and estimates observed during the Great Recession. We discuss the limits of our approach and future developments.
Cohesion policy and the EU funds have been key elements for territorial integration in Europe. Evidence shows that EU funds support the growth performance of regions. However, less has been discussed ...about the potential impact of macroeconomic uncertainty on the effectiveness of EU funds. Our analyses confirm that EU funds are important in understanding regional economic growth differences. However, the extent of macroeconomic uncertainty decreases the effectiveness of the EU funds. Our results are robust in including local controls, non-linearity of the EU funds’ effect, different EU fund categories, and regional heterogeneity in the EU.
To reach the necessary cohesion for the member states at socio-economic level, the EU sets substantial budgets in motion to implement its policies. This study proposes an analysis of how European ...funds were used for the construction of the Cohesion Policy in the segment of transition to low-carbon economy within the South-East Region of Romania, with a focus on the social side. The study case reveals challenges in implementing non-reimbursable financing for programming period 2014-2020/2023. The source of data are the official reports of the ministries with the role of management authority and that are updated up to this moment. The results of this study emphasize the importance of the Cohesion Policy financing for reaching the energy transition targets, but also the need to use a part of this fund for supporting social aspects so that people can more easily overcome the financial barriers on the way to green transition.
In order to assess the effectiveness of individual management systems in the analysed EU countries (Croatia, Poland, Slovakia, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Malta, Cyprus, Slovenia, Hungary), an ...econometric analysis of the interdependence between the quality of the institutional and regulatory framework and the absorption of EU funds and economic growth was conducted. Conceptually, the econometric analysis aims to identify two levels of interdependence between institutional and regulatory variables on the one hand and dependent variables on the other: (1) the effect of the quality of the institutional and regulatory environment on the absorption of EU funds; (2) the effect of the quality of the institutional and regulatory environment on economic growth. The results of the analysis confirm that EU funds have led to increased economic growth in EU countries which provides basis for economic convergence. However, the allocation of funds alone did not necessarily increase the quality of the institutional framework and competitiveness of the analysed countries. Thus, the paper confirms the importance of improvement of the institutional and regulatory framework of particular grant recipient country, as this not only increases the absorption of EU funds, but also improves the economic growth prospects.
McCann P. and Ortega-Argilés R. Smart specialization, regional growth and applications to European Union Cohesion policy, Regional Studies. The aim of this paper is to achieve two objectives. ...Firstly, it examines the smart specialization concept and explains the challenges involved in applying this originally sectoral concept to an explicitly spatial and regional setting. Secondly, it explains the ways in which this might be achieved so as to make the concept suitable as a building block of a reformed European Union cohesion policy.
In two decades since the Maastricht Treaty, multi-level governance (MLG) has developed as a conceptual framework for profiling the 'arrangement' of policy-making activity performed within and across ...politico-administrative institutions located at different territorial levels. This contribution examines the ways in which the MLG literature has been employed, effectively taking stock of applied research to date. It identifies five main uses of MLG and the different focus of emerging research over time. Considering the most recent scholarship, the contribution explores possible new directions for research, in light of global governance, culminating in a 'bird's eye view' of MLG over 20 years.
Europeanization refers to the process of integrating EU public policy into the domestic discourse and national policy. Two main mechanisms of Europeanization of national policy planning can be ...identified: a soft mechanism characterized by policy transfer and learning, and a hard mechanism determined by the obligation to comply to EU regulations. The aim of the article is to explore these mechanisms of Europeanization within the regional cohesion policy context in Italy. The first will be illustrated by results of PRIN survey on stakeholder awareness of key concepts of European territorial development mainstream; the second mechanism will be showed by the analysis of ROPs elaborated by Italian Regions under ERDF policy process.
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