(How) Do Euroregions Contribute to the "Added Value" of EU Cohesion Policy

Stefan Telle, research affiliate at CPS, shared the research findings of his Phd thesis “The ‘Added Value’ of Soft Spaces to EU Cohesion Policy. Comparing Cross-Border Cooperation in Two Central European Euroregions” on the October 19th CPS seminar.

European integration raises new questions about balanced development in Europe. Importantly, the broadening and deepening of the European Union (EU) highlights the fact that balanced development is not merely a national issue. Particularly in the aftermath of the eastern enlargements and the financial debt crisis, the gap between the richer and poorer regions has widened significantly.
In this context, a simultaneous convergence of the levels of development at the national scale and a divergence of the levels of development at the sub-national scale has been observed. Particularly in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), capital city regions fare disproportionally better in terms of GDP/capita than the national average.

Read more about the topic in the dissertation summary.