Romanian Journal of European Affairs (Dec 2009)
REGIONAL AND COHESION POLICY – THE CROSSROADS OF EU SECTORAL POLICIES
Abstract
The article reviews the main theories of development in order to provide a solid background to discuss one of the most important EU policies – the Regional and Cohesion Policy. Firstly, its weight is given by the fact it represents EU’s major development policy, by means of which the EU decision-makers have tried to maintain a balanced growth. Secondly, its special relevance is due to the fact that it represents „a spatial combination of a variety of sectoral policies“ (Hooghe, 1996, 10), a genuine crossroads where these sectoral policies meet. EU regions – the focus of Regional and Cohesion Policy – are testing grounds where sector-driven initiatives are tested, confirmed, invalidated, or improved. The new design of the policy is discussed in the context created by the global economic crisis that puts cohesion to a severe test. Just like other phenomena that we can witness today, the crisis only has enforced and strengthened pre-existing trends, among which the shift from convergence and cohesion towards competitiveness as such appears to be the most prominent one.
