The challenging political and economic context for regional policy and the recent reforms of EU policies were among the key themes of the 35th Annual Conference of the European Regional Policy Research Consortium (EoRPA) held at Ross Priory, Loch Lomondside, Scotland, on 5-7 October 2014.
The Conference, chaired by John Bachtler, brought together senior regional policymakers from across Europe to debate the current state of national regional policies, EU Competition policy control of State aid, the reform of EU Cohesion policy and regional policy evaluation. The Conference sessions were based on research reports and presentations prepared by EPRC, following research conducted in 30 European countries during 2013-14.
By way of introduction, Sara Davies gave an assessment of the recent evolution of regional and local problems and the development challenges facing policymakers, followed by an assessment of how the management and implementation of policy is changing, given by Frederike Gross.Laura Polverari also presented a review of the role of regional policy evaluation and recent trends in approaches and methods for evaluating effectiveness.
Shifting the focus of the debate, two papers were presented on policy reforms at EU level, first on the implementation of the reformed EU Regional Aid Guidelines by Fiona Wishlade, and then an assessment of the state of programming under EU Cohesion policy for the 2014-2020 period and scenarios for further policy reform after 2020 by Carlos Mendez.
Managed by EPRC, EoRPA is a research programme funded by government departments from Austria, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.