European Union's Cohesion Policy: What room for manoeuvre for local planning initiatives?

Abstract

The research reported in this article fits into the overall current debate on the strengths and weaknesses of the European Cohesion Policy. This debate questions the attained results in the face of the originally settled goals and budgeted amounts provided for member countries and respective regions. These doubts are mainly issued from the financial disruption in the cohesion groups countries that hardly manage to control their budgets deficits and external debt. In face of this general framework, and of globalization trends, the main theme of this article consists of the analysis and identification of the room for manoeuvre for the definition and implementation of strong local-based development policies. A strategic alternative to the current system is proposed and duly supported, strongly based on local freedom and strengths. After the theoretical research concerning the definition, characteristics, goals and results of the current cohesion policy, a methodology is proposed and applied based on autoregressive vectors of temporal series, in order to measure elasticity, productivity and profitability of public investments performed in the Portuguese Northern Region during the last fifteen years. Conclusions are extracted and compared with the results obtained for public investments performed in the other cohesion countries (Spain, Greece and Ireland). Causality relations and balances between exogenous interventions and endogenous-lead development are questioned, as well as the balances between conditionality and subsidiarity issues. Finally, a proposal for strategic planning strongly based on local characteristics, knowledge and know-how is proposed, enhancing its advantages in strengthening localsŽ cohesion, competitiveness and overall sustainability, from an economic-social-spatial perspective.