Publications

The United Kingdom has been one of the key proponents of financial instruments (FIs) – loans, guarantees and equity - and spends a larger share of its Structural Funds allocations in the form of FIs than most Member States. FIs have played an increasingly prominent role in EU policies, including Cohesion policy, and the UK has often been at the leading edge of policy practice in this area. As the United Kingdom prepares to leave the structures and policies created under EU Cohesion Policy, it is appropriate to consider what lessons can be retained from the Structural Funds experience with financial instruments, where it could be improved and how it might inform future policy design.

This paper provides a brief overview of the rationales and role of financial instruments and sets the UK experience within a broader EU context. Drawing on the views of the FINE partner it goes on to review policymaker assessments of how EU financial instruments have worked, and what has worked well.

EC_OECD Seminar Series on Designing better economic development policies for regions and cities

Research for REGI Committee – European Parliament, Policy Department for Structural and Cohesion Policies, Brussels

Final Report to European Commission, Directorate-General for Regional Policy and Urban Policy, Directorate B - Policy, Unit B.1 - Policy Development and Economic Analysis

Journal of Common Market Studies, Volume 55, Issue 3, May 2017, pages 569–592

Ex post evaluation of Cohesion Policy programmes 2007-2013, focusing on the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and the Cohesion Fund (CF). Final Report to European Commission, Directorate-General for Regional Policy and Urban Policy, Directorate B - Policy, Unit B.2 Evaluation and European Semester

Directorate-General for Internal Policies, Policy Department D: Budgetary Affairs, Brussels,  IP/D/ALL/FWC/2015-001/LOT2/C2/SC1 

Directorate-General for Internal Policies; Policy Department B; Structural and Cohesion Policies, Strasbourg, European Parliament, IP/B/REGI/IC/2015-131

Directorate-General for Internal Policies; Policy Department B; Structural and Cohesion Policies, Strasbourg, European Parliament, IP/B/REGI/IC/2015-019

paper to 2nd Regional Studies Association and European Commission joint policy conference, Riga, Latvia, February 2015