EPRC organises IQ-Net Conference on the future of Cohesion policy

Government officials from 16 countries participated in a conference on the reform of Cohesion policy organised in Brussels by EPRC on 6-7 May 2010. Under the auspices of the http://www.eprc.strath.ac.uk/iqnet/default.cfm IQ-Net research programme, the conference brought together over 20 national and regional authorities responsible for managing EU Structural Funds - as well as the European Commission and European Parliament - to discuss how EU Cohesion policy should be reformed. The conference discussions, which involved guest presentations by Dr Dirk Ahner (Director-General of DG Regio) and Professor Danuta Hübner (chair of the European Parliament's REGI Committee), were based on an EPRC research paper, which set out the key reform proposals currently under discussion: the concentration of resources on strategic priorities; increased performance and results; more coherence between policies and funding instruments; an expanded role for territorial cooperation; administrative simplification; and different forms of governance. During a mix of plenary and workshop discussions, the conference identified the desirability and practicality of the reforms proposed and ways in which they needed to be adapted to ensure that they could be implemented in practice.