Cohesion Policy and the EU’s Investment Strategy: Coherence or Confusion?
21 January 2015 12:00 pm CET
Iain Begg, London School of Economics
Venue
wiiw, Rahlgasse 3, 1060 Vienna, library (second floor)
Description
According to the 6th ‘Cohesion Report’ report, published last year by the European Commission, Cohesion Policy is the EU’s investment policy. It is portrayed as being the main instrument for supporting the Europe 2020 strategy, with its well-publicised aim of achieving smart, sustainable and inclusive growth. The Commission also claims that Cohesion Policy has become the main source of public investment in the Union. Yet more recently, the launch of the €315 billion European Fund for Strategic Investment aimed at boosting growth and jobs and ‘unlocking public and private investments in the real economy’ suggests a parallel approach. The aim of this seminar will be to appraise the shifting focus of EU Cohesion Policy and the reforms presented in the 6th Cohesion report, and to ask whether the conjunction of the two approaches to an EU investment strategy are coherent. The seminar will draw on various publications by the author, including the findings of a major long-run evaluation of the effectiveness of Cohesion Policy.
Iain Begg is a Professorial Research Fellow at the European Institute, London School of Economics and Political Science. His main research work is on the political economy of European integration and EU economic governance. He has directed and participated in a series of research projects on different facets of EU policy and his current projects include studies on the governance of EU economic and social policy, the EU's Europe 2020 strategy, evaluation of EU cohesion policy and reform of the EU budget.