This paper examines the impact of the European Union's Cohesion Policy 2014-2020 on enterprise dynamics at the NUTS-2 level. Using discrete eligibility thresholds at 75 and 90 percent of EU average GDP per capita, we implement sharp and fuzzy regression discontinuity designs to assess effects on...

This paper evaluates EU Cohesion Policy interventions during 2014-2020 using regression discontinuity design (RDD), exploiting funding thresholds at 75 and 90 percent of EU average GDP per capita across 281 NUTS-2 regions. The analysis examines nominal and real GDP per capita growth, GDP per...

For the 2028-2034 European Union budget (Multiannual Financial Framework, MFF), the European Commission has proposed to integrate cohesion, agricultural, migration and security policies - until now, standalone budget components - into a single framework, structured around National and Regional...

The paper examines the European Union's efforts to promote economic and social integration. Despite significant convergence across EU member states, regional inequalities persist, particularly between urban centers and lagging rural areas, fueling Euroscepticism and political polarization. To...

Green transition is one of the priority areas in the European Union (EU), and thus also the focus of EU cohesion policy implementation during the 2021-2027 programming period, through "green growth". To establish adequate guidelines and achieve better outcomes, it is necessary to observe and...

As the amended ECDC Founding Regulation and the Regulation on serious cross-border threats to health (SCBTH Regulation) came into force in December 2022, the ECDC long-term Strategy 2021-2027 has been adapted to incorporate new and extended tasks of the Centre's strengthened mandate. 2025 will...

The original full study analyses the evolution and current implementation status of synergies between the Horizon Europe research and innovation funding programme (HE) and the funds and programmes underpinning the European Union's (EU) Cohesion Policy (CP). Synergies between the HE and CP...

This study examines the evolution and the current status of the implementation of synergies between Horizon Europe and the Cohesion Policy funds for research and innovation activities. It provides insights into the main barriers and drivers for the uptake of these synergies, along with possible...

This report contains a case study for the Study supporting the Impact assessment of the future European Social Fund proposal. Achieving structural change: conditions for success in the areas of ESF intervention. The reform under assessment focuses on "Nursing and Care Professionals: Addressing...

This report contains a case study for the Study supporting the Impact assessment of the future European Social Fund proposal. Achieving structural change: conditions for success in the areas of ESF intervention. The reform under assessment examines the development of active labour market...

This report contains a case study for the Study supporting the Impact assessment of the future European Social Fund proposal. Achieving structural change: conditions for success in the areas of ESF intervention. The reform under assessment evaluates the design, implementation, and outcomes of...

This study aims to contribute to the knowledge base on causal mechanisms and necessary conditions for successful structural change in the broad areas of ESF+ intervention. It provides quantitative and qualitative analysis of structural reforms carried out in EU Member States in 2014-2022,...

This study aims to contribute to the knowledge base on causal mechanisms and necessary conditions for successful structural change in the broad areas of ESF+ intervention. It provides quantitative and qualitative analysis of structural reforms carried out in EU Member States in 2014-2022,...

This study examines the evolution and the current status of the implementation of synergies between Horizon Europe and the Cohesion Policy funds for research and innovation activities. It provides insights into the main barriers and drivers for the uptake of these synergies, along with possible...

The original full study analyses the evolution and current implementation status of synergies between the Horizon Europe research and innovation funding programme (HE) and the funds and programmes underpinning the European Union's (EU) Cohesion Policy (CP). Synergies between the HE and CP...

The purpose of the 'Support for Smart Villages in the CAP Strategic Plans' report carried out in the framework of the 2nd Preparatory Action - Smart areas in the 21th century - is to provide an overview on how Smart Villages concept has been programmed in the 2023-2027 CAP Strategic Plans (CAP...

This report contains a case study for the Study supporting the Impact assessment of the future European Social Fund proposal. Achieving structural change: conditions for success in the areas of ESF intervention. The reform under assessment examines the policies for improving employability of...

This report contains a case study for the Study supporting the Impact assessment of the future European Social Fund proposal. Achieving structural change: conditions for success in the areas of ESF intervention. The reform under evaluation in the current case study focuses on ensuring the...

This report presents a case study for the Study supporting the Impact assessment of the future European Social Fund proposal. Achieving structural change: conditions for success in the areas of ESF intervention. The reform under assessment focuses on tackling youth unemployment in Italy in the...

This report contains a case study for the Study supporting the Impact assessment of the future European Social Fund proposal. Achieving structural change: conditions for success in the areas of ESF intervention. The reform under assessment focuses on the implementation of the National Strategy...

Smart Villages is a relatively new concept that was first formulated by the European Commission - at the initiation of the European Parliament through the EU Action for Smart Villages in 2017. The 1st Preparatory Action on Smart Rural Areas in the 21st Century (called Smart Rural 21 project,...

This report contains a case study for the Study supporting the Impact assessment of the future European Social Fund proposal. Achieving structural change: conditions for success in the areas of ESF intervention. The reform under assessment examines the Vocational Education and Training (VET)...

This report contains a case study for the Study supporting the Impact assessment of the future European Social Fund proposal. Achieving structural change: conditions for success in the areas of ESF intervention. The reform under assessment focuses on the 2015 pension reform in Finland, and...

This study aims to contribute to the knowledge base on causal mechanisms and necessary conditions for successful structural change in the broad areas of ESF+ intervention. It provides quantitative and qualitative analysis of structural reforms carried out in EU Member States in 2014-2022,...

This paper investigates the growth impact of the EU's Structural, Cohesion and Pre-accession Funds. We look at a large sample of 27 EU countries and the UK, over a period of 1989 and 2020, essentially covering the full history of these funds. We show that the growth effect of the funds is...

This paper applies a multi-level social network analysis to examine Aragón's innovation ecosystem, focusing on a decade of competitive public projects (2014-2023) aligned with the region's Smart Specialisation Strategy (S3) 2021-2027. By mapping and weighting the participation of regional...

This study provides new evidence on the impact of the EU Cohesion Policy on income growth in less developed regions. Our panel includes data from all European regions for the years 1989-2020. Using a fuzzy Regression Discontinuity Design, we model treatment dynamics by applying a random effects...

This year marked a significant milestone in the evolution of the Common European Asylum System (CEAS) as the EUAA successfully started preparations for the entry into application of the legislative instruments forming part of the Pact on Migration and Asylum (the Pact). This demonstrated our...

Unprecedented challenges require swift action. We need to modernise cohesion policy to boost Europe's competitiveness, defence and security, affordable housing, water resilience, and energy transition.

Smart specialisation is an EU policy approach, fully implemented from the 2014-2020 programming period onwards, wherein regions identify investment priorities and focus their EU regional innovation spending on them. The goal is to maximise competitive advantage and to build on the regions' own...

This policy brief presents one such initiative: a Peer2Peer study visit by the Andalusian delegation to their counterparts in Finland and Denmark. Facilitated by the Joint Research Centre and supported by the TAIEX-REGIO Peer2Peer instrument in collaboration with DG REGIO, the visit aimed to...

Unprecedented challenges require swift action. We need to modernise cohesion policy to boost Europe's competitiveness, defence and security, affordable housing, water resilience, and energy transition.

As one of the EU's key tools for participatory democracy, the European citizens' initiative (ECI) allows citizens to call directly on the European Commission to propose new laws in areas where the EU has competence. Since its launch, the ECI has given Europeans a stronger voice in shaping Union...

This review provides ideas to contribute to the ongoing discussion on the next cohesion policy period starting in 2028. It brings together results from our published audits, reviews and opinions on different aspects of the implementation of cohesion policy. It compares these findings with our...

We study the effects of place-based policies on aggregate productivity using administrative data on projects co-financed by the EU in Italy linked to balance sheet data. We exploit quasi-experimental variation in funding for a large place-based policy stemming from measurement error in regional...

We study the effects of place-based policies on aggregate productivity using administrative data on projects co-financed by the EU in Italy linked to balance sheet data. We exploit quasi-experimental variation in funding for a large place-based policy stemming from measurement error in regional...

This study examines how climate and environmental objectives can be mainstreamed under the post-2027 Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF). The 2021-2027 MFF operates on the basis of specific climate and biodiversity spending targets, a related expenditure tracking system and a number of other...

We analyse the macroeconomic impact of the European cohesion policy investments deployed during the 2014-2020 programming period on the basis of simulations carried out with the spatial dynamic general equilibrium model called RHOMOLO. We use the latest data on actual expenditures including the...