A new blog from EPRC takes a fresh look at the Commission proposals for Cohesion policy 2021-27 from a UK perspective in the light of updated GDP and other statistical data. As the UK prepares for regional policy without the Structural Funds, the focus of the blog is on how the UK Cohesion policy map would have looked, the scale of funding and how it might have been distributed among the four nations. This analysis shows not only that UK Cohesion policy allocations would have increased substantially, but also that the distribution of the funds between England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland under the new proposals would differ significantly from the shares in 2014-20. This in turn calls into question the extent to which EU funding allocations might be used as a basis for deciding future shares of the UK Shared Prosperity Fund or other regional development policy, and if so, whether the past or the future is the best guide.
The full blog is available here.
For further information: fiona.wishlade@strath.ac.uk