Professor John Bachtler participated in the launch of the long-awaited Barca Report on the future of EU cohesion policy which took place at the Berlaymont in Brussels on 27 April, hosted by EU Commissioner Danuta Hübner and Director-General Dirk Ahner.
The independent Report was written by Dr. Fabrizio Barca (Director General, Ministry of Economy & Finance, Italy), at the request of Commissioner Hübner to assess the effectiveness of cohesion policy to date as well as a series of proposals on how to reform cohesion policy for the period after 2013. With extensive support from EPRC, the preparation of the Report involved a wide-ranging review of the economic literature and empirical evidence, as well as hearings and seminars with academic experts and policy makers.
The report discusses the economic rationale and motivation of an EU place-based development policy and provides an assessment of EU cohesion policy. In addition, it identifies a limited number of core priorities on which to focus cohesion policy.
Finally, it presents recommendations on key pillars of cohesion policy governance pinpointed for reform. As part of the research team supporting Fabrizio Barca, John Bachtler contributed to the review of the evidence base, co-authored the proposals on the future of the policy, and together with Carlos Mendez, organised and led the debate with policymakers from 27 EU Member States. Carlos Mendez also co-authored one of the ten working papers which contributed to the final Report. Further, the Report draws on EPRC research carried out by Professor Douglas Yuill on the regional policies of Member States and by Dr Martin Ferry on the challenges of demographic ageing in the EU. The Barca report and supporting papers are available here .