Multilevel Governance and Partnership for Effective Regional Development Policies: Lessons from EU Cohesion Policy

Abstract : The 1988 reform of the structural funds (SF) set the foundations for European Union (EU) cohesion policy (CP), arguably one of the most innovative and large-scale, if controversial and often criticised, policies addressing uneven economic development and territorial disparities. The reform reflected the shift towards new regionalism (Amin and Thrift, 1995; Cooke and Morgan, 1998; Storper, 1995, 1997), an approach considering the regional scale as key for economic development underpinned by robust regional networks and site-specific ‘relational assets’ such as trust and social capital...