Sub-Rosa discussion on the future of Cohesion Policy.

On 8th April the Scottish Government, Scotland Europa and the Highlands and Island Enterprise Partnership hosted a Sub-Rosa discussion on the future of Cohesion Policy at Scotland House in Brussels. The event was attended by a wide range of people including Commission, permanent representative and ministry officials, representatives of European regions and delegates from Scotland. EPRC Visiting Professor Charlie Woods presented a paper entitled 'Cohesion Policy - A springboard to sustainable economic growth?' at the beginning of the Sub-Rosa to help stimulate discussion. The paper's two core propositions were that all of Europe's regions have a contribution to make to achieving Europe 2020 objectives and that Cohesion Policy offers the chance to better integrate policies and actions on the ground to improve policy outcomes. The Sub-Rosa partners will be preparing a follow up report based on discussions at the event to feed into discussions on the shape of Cohesion Policy post 2013.