Criteria for a future-wise Cohesion Policy
April 2025
Cohesion matters more than ever. As the EU faces profound challenges, growing disparities and fragmentation threaten to divide people and places, thus threatening the very foundations of EU integration. Geopolitical uncertainties, the declining global competitiveness of European businesses, the relentless pace of digitalisation, the urgent pressures of climate change, and increased competition for increasingly limited public funds demand a radical rethink. A previous blog post (Si apre in una nuova finestra) highlighted the crucial role of cohesion in responding to immediate crises.
Cohesion policy stands out as vital - not just desirable - for securing Europe's future. However, cohesion policy in its current form is unlikely to be able to provide adequate responses to the challenges ahead.
A forward-looking cohesion policy must go beyond business as usual, with a little crisis management thrown in. It needs to be embedded in a broader vision for the EU - one that unites all policies behind the common goal of ensuring that every citizen, every region and every social group sees tangible benefits from European integration. This vision must make clear how the EU directly contributes to improving lives and opportunities, and to promoting shared prosperity and stability for all.
In this context, cohesion policy must contribute to five different criteria or objectives.
Ensure that all places and social groups are better off
As disparities in the EU threaten to widen, a forward-looking cohesion policy must ensure that every region and social group in the EU truly benefits. This principle, summarised as 'leaving no one behind', is crucial for social justice, political legitimacy and European unity. Achieving this, however, requires addressing both objective improvements and subjective perceptions. Objective progress - improving infrastructure, creating jobs, improving services - is essential but often insufficient on its own. People typically evaluate their own situation relative to others and relative to their experiences over time, both retrospectively and prospectively. Feelings of being left behind often arise from perceptions of loss of something previously enjoyed or fear of future loss – especially compared to others -, rather than from absolute deprivation. The issue of cohesion therefore goes beyond supporting backward or disadvantaged regions. It is also about maintaining the dynamism and attractiveness of places, their capacity to attract policy attention and investment, and their ability to offer their citizens positive prospects and hope for the future.
Strengthen innovation and global competitiveness
As Europe is falling behind in global competitiveness, a forward-looking cohesion policy should also explicitly support innovation and strengthen the global competitiveness of European regions. Innovation is not only a feature of prosperous and traditionally innovative regions, but must be actively promoted and embedded in all regions, regardless of their current economic strength. Stimulating innovation capacity in regions that are lagging behind can lead to new growth pathways, reduce dependency and promote economic resilience. Moreover, supporting globally competitive regions plays an essential role in boosting overall EU growth and positioning Europe competitively on the global stage. Cohesion policy must strategically enable innovation linkages between leading and lagging regions, creating robust innovation ecosystems that benefit the whole EU. This collaborative approach can unlock regional potential, create sustainable growth and maintain Europe's global competitive edge.
Contribute to transformative action
Europe is facing profound changes that require significant changes in its economies, societies, governance and intergovernmental relations. Managing these changes effectively is crucial for the long-term stability and prosperity of the EU. Economically, Europe is losing its global competitive edge and risks doing so even more in the face of the technological and economic transitions that could shape the next decades. Climate change requires transformative approaches that radically reshape adaptation and mitigation efforts to protect livelihoods and ecosystems. European societies are also changing, involving debates and transformations that touch on the very foundations of our value systems, including our undervaluing of democracies, the rule of law, etc. Finally, the EU itself is changing in the face of geopolitical shifts and also planned enlargements, which imply dynamic reassessments involving geographical considerations, institutional reforms, enhanced competences and strategic allocations of resources. A forward-looking cohesion policy must therefore actively support and facilitate these essential changes, ensuring that regions and societies across Europe are prepared, resilient and prosperous in the midst of profound change.
Encourage experimentation and allow for failure
In tackling the complex challenges of the future, there is no single blueprint or straightforward solution. Consequently, a forward-looking cohesion policy must actively encourage experimentation and promote innovative and novel approaches to tackling emerging problems. Experimentation means creating spaces for testing new ideas, technologies and governance models, while accepting that not all experiments will succeed. It is equally important to allow for failure; acknowledging failure as part of the learning process can provide important long-term insights and resilience. This approach requires a policy framework that is tolerant of risk and adaptive to lessons learned. By embracing experimentation and recognising the value of informed risk-taking, cohesion policy can become more dynamic, responsive and able to respond to Europe's evolving needs and opportunities.
Simplifying administrative procedures
Administrative complexity remains a major obstacle to the effective implementation of cohesion policy. Looking at what was previously known as the European Structural and Investment Funds (ESIF), administrative costs average around 4%. While this is not excessive, it amounts to around EUR 26 billion or around 610 000 person-years (full-time equivalents) for a programming period managing EUR 646 billion. This administrative effort is often a burden on public authorities in many member states. This is particularly the case at a time when public authorities are faced with limited human and financial resources. Simplifying administrative procedures should therefore go beyond minor adjustments and require a fundamental rethink of existing systems. Radical simplification would free up resources and improve access to funding. Streamlining administrative procedures is therefore essential if cohesion policy is to have a meaningful and timely impact across the EU.
Conclusions and five key questions for a future-wise cohesion policy
Ensuring a future-wise cohesion policy requires a balance between broad social, economic, environmental and administrative considerations. To make an effective contribution to Europe's future, cohesion policy must clearly demonstrate how it delivers benefits for all, supports innovation, embraces transformative change, encourages experimentation and simplifies administration.
Policy makers and stakeholders can assess the future orientation of cohesion policy proposals by asking the following five questions:
Does the proposal explicitly address social, economic and territorial disparities, ensuring tangible benefits for all social groups and regions, taking into account both objective results and subjective perceptions?
How does it concretely support regional innovation capacity and global competitiveness in different types of regions?
Does it actively facilitate transformative changes in economies, climate action, societal values, quality of governance and European integration?
Does it allow and support experimentation, including openness to learning from failure?
Does the proposal effectively simplify administrative procedures to ensure efficient implementation and wide accessibility?
By systematically applying these criteria and questions, cohesion policy can become truly forward-looking, capable of responding effectively to current and emerging European challenges.
by Kai Böhme
(Si apre in una nuova finestra)
