Partnership as an EU Policy Instrument: A Political History

Abstract

Partnership is an idea whose time has come. It has been a prominent instrument of EU regional policy since 1989, requiring as a condition of funding that member states establish partnerships in each assisted region to oversee spending decisions. Over time, the requirement has become more precise to ensure the participation not only of state actors from various territorial levels, but also non-state actors. Using the political sociology approach to policy instruments, this article considers the creation and development of the partnership instrument and analyses the key debates and issues that have informed its evolution. It argues that while partnership has been generally presented as a technical device aimed at improving decisional efficiency and policy effectiveness, it is a highly political instrument with very different purposes and effects in different contexts.

Notes

1. Concentration focused funds on areas of greatest need; programming required regions to develop strategic multi-annual plans to ensure coherence between projects funded; and there was a clearer requirement for member states to spend funds in addition to planned domestic expenditure (the additionality requirement).

2. The following financial instruments were available to the candidate states of central and eastern Europe before 2004: ISPA (Instrument for Structural Policies Pre-Accession) provided funding for transport and environmental projects, SAPARD (Special Accession Programme for Agricultural and Rural Development) provided assistance for agriculture and rural development, and the Phare (Poland and Hungary: Aid for Economic Restructuring) programme aimed to strengthen economic and social cohesion and administrative and institutional capacity in the accession states.

3. This section draws on material from Bache and Catney (2008).