Cohesion Policy and the citizens’ perceptions of the EU: the role of communication and implementation

Abstract

EU Cohesion Policy has arguably the most tangible impact on the citizens' environment and livelihoods and can potentially boost their attachment to the European project. Beyond the cross-national transactionalist hypothesis, Cohesion Policy spending has a local impact and may affect the lives of citizens who do not benefit directly from cross-national transactions, like education, work, investment and travel in other European countries. One could thus expect that Cohesion Policy has a significant positive impact on the ways in which citizens perceive the EU. But what happens when a country is a net contributor to the EU's budget receiving a relatively small amount of Cohesion Policy funding, the bulk of it being invested in poorer European territories? Building on the cases of two Dutch regions-Flevoland and Limburgthis paper investigates the extent to which the citizens are aware of Cohesion Policy interventions and how the features of communication on and implementation of Cohesion Policy affect this awareness.

Cohesion policy and citizens' identification with the European union

“…Moreover, CP funding does not play an important role in total public investment (only 0,59% in the Netherlands in 2015-17 compared to 84% in Portugal, 80% in Croatia, or 55% in Slovakia based on Cohesion data, 2020). Dąbrowski et al (2021) confirm that the scale of funding, awareness of CP among citizens, and implementation architecture matter for EU identification. In the case of Dutch regions, low allocations of EU funding, way of communication, fragmented funding, bureaucratic government structure, and distance from the levels of government with which the citizens identify can have limited impact on positive EU identification.…”

“…Most individuals who declare a sole European identity were from old member states who don't think their country benefited from EU membership. Based on a case study of two Dutch regions (the Netherlands is one of the largest per capita net contributors to the EU budget), CP and citizens' perception in old member states is investigated by Dąbrowski et al (2021). They mention growing Euroscepticism through the rejection of the 2005 referendum on the EU constitutional treaty, anti-immigrants' sentiments, rejection of the EU Association Agreement with Ukraine in 2016, and extreme right-wing parties in government in the 2017 national election.…”