Macroeconomic and Financial Absorption Capacity of Turkey for the Use of EU Structural Funds

The Western Balkans and the EU budget: the effects of enlargement

“…Numerous studies (for a recent review, see Incaltarau et al 2019) have shown that the ability of EU member states to successfully utilize EU funds is limited by their administrative capacity, which refers to institutional infrastructures and human resources required to implement EU policies (Milio 2007;Tosun 2014;Bachtler et al 2014;Kersan Škabić and Tijanić 2017). It is further constrained by governance quality at central and regional levels, including political stability and the lack of corruption (Rothstein et al 2013;Rodríguez-Pose and Garcilazo 2015;Surubaru 2017;Hagemann 2019), and by macroeconomic and financial absorption capacity, since the use of EU funds requires national/regional co-financing and sufficient project readiness (Šumpíková et al 2004;Mrak and Horvat 2009;Zaman and Georgescu 2009). Considering substantial deficiencies of the WBCs in all of the above-mentioned areas and the early membership experience of the recent EU entrants, absorption capacity of the WBCs is likely to present a challenge.…”