The findings of recent EPRC research by Fiona Wishlade and Frederike Gross have now been made available on the DG Regio website. The aim of the study, which was led by EPRC and undertaken with Euroreg at the University of Warsaw and a team of experts from all Member States, was to examine the objectives of economic and social cohesion in the economic policies of the Member States.
The study was undertaken in the context of Article 175 of the Treaty (TFEU), which requires Member States to conduct and coordinate their economic policies in such as way as to contribute to economic and social cohesion in the EU. Article 175 also requires the European Commission to report every three years on the progress towards economic and social cohesion; EPRC's study was part of the preparatory work for the 5th so-called 'Cohesion Report', recently published by the European Commission.
Among the key tasks required in the report was the development of a typology of Member State approaches to cohesion. The study identified five main policy approaches, reflecting policy objectives, national commitment to reducing regional disparities, types of instrument, scale of policy and the role of EU Cohesion policy:
- Prominent regional disparities: regional development policy emphasis
- Diverse regional differences: regional competitiveness policy emphasis (BE, FR, UK );
- Limited regional disparities: national competitive policy emphasis (AT, DK, LU, NL)
- Diverse geographical issues : national advancement policy emphasis (CY, GR, IE MT, PT, SI)
- Widening regional disparities : national development policy emphasis (BU, CZ, EE HU, LT, LV, PL, RO, SK)
EPRC's study is published on DG Regio's website, available here.