December 20, 2016

Differentiation in the management of Cohesion policy: an idea whose time has come?

On 16 November 2016, the General Affairs Council concluded that the renewal of Cohesion policy needs to consider “the introduction of differentiation into the implementation of the ESI Funds programmes based on objective criteria and positive incentives for programmes”.
November 2, 2016

How to communicate the EU – reflections after Europcom 2016

This year while flying over to Europcom, the annual conference for EU communicators in Brussels, I sat on the plane with a weird feeling in my stomach. I had just watched a documentary film on the migration crisis in the Mediterranean and could not get some […]
October 26, 2016

European Identity and citizen attitudes to Cohesion policy: what do we know ?

“The European Union (EU) requires citizens’ support and identification to enhance its legitimacy. The question of whether and how much European identity is necessary for European integration is highly contested, largely because it is connected to controversial normative debates about the nature of the EU as […]
October 7, 2016

REFORMING COHESION POLICY: THE COMMUNICATION PARADOX

“One problem the policy faces is related to how we communicate about it”. The words of Commissioner Creţu at the Slovak EU Presidency Conference in Bratislava summed up the paradox facing Cohesion policy: there is more evidence than ever before on the added value of the […]