John Bachtler was an invited speaker at the Scotland Europa event 'EU Regional Policy Post-2013: Developing a Coordinated Scottish Approach' held in Glasgow on 15 February 2012.
The event was organised to consider how Scotland can maximise the opportunities in the proposed future Regional Policy architecture : the Common Strategic Framework (CSF), proposals for thematic concentration and options for delivery - and to inform the Scotland Europa response to the forthcoming European Commission Communication and corresponding consultation exercise concerning the CSF.
John introduced the debate with a presentation 'Reflecting on the performance of Cohesion policy'. Building on EPRC's research into the achievements of Structural and Cohesion Funds over the past two decade, his paper examined what is known about the performance of Cohesion policy, why the evidence base is relatively weak and how the Commission's proposals for post-2013 Cohesion policy aim to strengthen the effectiveness of EU funding.