'Reflections on the accountability of Cohesion policy, on the trade-off between different types of accountability and on the trade-off between accountability and effectiveness' is the title of a new publication (in Italian) by Laura Polverari, in Rivista Giuridica del Mezzogiorno 4/2011 (pp. 1093-1107).
By assessing the rules that inform the processes of programme management and the strength of the mechanisms in place to ensure the related compliance, the article concludes that the current emphasis in the management of Cohesion policy on financial accountabiilty is a direct effect of the regulatory framework governing the policy. Also, the introduction of new 'conditionalities' for the next programme period will not deliver the desired re-orientation towards outcome and performance accountability if it is not be accompanied by an overall rebalancing of the degree of cogency across all the existing and new conditionalities.