Professor John Bachtler was an invited speaker at a seminar organised on 20 September 2012 by the Polish Embassy in Rome to discuss two main questions: how can EU Cohesion policy be used as an instrument for investment and economic growth purposes? And what kind of benefits does cohesion policy bring not only to beneficiary countries but also to the so-called net contributors?
Set in the context of the current negotiations on the future of Cohesion policy, John Bachtler's paper 'Cohesion policy as a development instrument: performance and added value' explored what is known about the performance of the policy and different dimensions of its so-called added value.
Introduced by Małgorzata Kałużyńska, Director of the EU Economy Department in the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the seminar also featured contributions from Professor Gianfranco Viesti, University of Bari, and Dr Sabina De Luca, Director-General of the Development Policies Department in the Italian Ministry of Economic Development.