Policies must match the needs of nations and regions

Europe needs to develop a means of territorial cooperation that’s designed to enhance the impact of the national and regional operational programmes and the provision of EU value-added.

We need to decisively improve governance and enhance institutional capacities, especially in the less advanced regions, as well as strengthen on-going evaluation as a continuous policy-learning mechanism. These are preconditions for the effective use of our resources; institutional capacity is more important than money.

In the more advanced regions, EU policy should favour an approach fully aligned with EU-wide priorities, with EU funding fostering innovation and experimentation to explore new policy avenues.

In less developed regions, “national” and “regional” approaches should be combined appropriately as part of an overall economic policy strategy to maximise national growth prospects and social and environmental sustainability.

This should all be accompanied by an effective regional development policy that responds to the needs of the real economy and is more accessible for beneficiaries, in particular SMEs.