John Bachtler was an invited plenary speaker at the International Conference on Cohesion Policy 'Growing Together' held in Ankara on 28 March 2013. He presented a paper on EU Cohesion policy in the 'new' Member States (EU12) examining their performance in terms of financial progress, outcomes and management of Structural and Cohesion Funds.
The conference brought together high-level representatives from the European Commission, the European Parliament, Member States, Turkey and other Candidate Countries, with the aim of drawing lessons from the implementation and impact of the Cohesion Policy and reflecting on the priorities and measures to be adopted in the next period.
The conference was organised in the framework of the project 'Technical Assistance for capacity improvement in the economic in the economic and social cohesion policy (Phase II), Turkey' and was co-financed by the European Union and the Republic of Turkey.