Capturing the achievements made by Interreg? Insights from cross border cooperation between Spain and Portugal

ABSTRACT

In recent years, ‘place-based’ interventions have become influential in shaping economic development policy, especially at the European level. From the 2007 to 2013 programming period onwards, EU Cohesion policy, adopted a ‘place-based’ approach to encourage the competitiveness of all regions. Rather than spatially-blind interventions, the focus is on tackling territorial inequalities via a more sophisticated spatially-sensitive approach to stimulate economic change, at the local level. The challenge is that place-based policies are complex, risky and the performance indicators used to capture the achievements from EU Cohesion policy focus on direct results rather than expected policy change, making it hard to prove effectiveness and value for money. This paper contributes to ongoing academic and policy debates about how to capture the achievements of EU Cohesion policy, through an in-depth case study of ‘place-based’ interventions made via Interreg funding, to encourage cross-border cooperation between Spain and Portugal. The evidence illustrates that there is a need for novel approaches, which are conceptually informed and spatially sensitive to be able to capture not only the quantitative but also the qualitative achievements generated through EU ‘place-based’ interventions.

KEYWORDS:

• EU cohesion policy
• ERDF
• Interreg
• Spain
• Portugal
• ‘place-based’ economic development

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 In original language, the name of the programme is España-Portugal, see www.poctep.eu

2 See: https://ec.europa.eu/regional_policy/en/policy/cooperation/european-territorial/egtc/

3 The research was part of a wider project evaluating ex-post the European Territorial Cooperation (ETC) Programme, 2007–2013, commissioned by DG Regional and Urban Policy (see ADE 2016a, 2016b).

4 It was formally recognized in 1668 under the Treaty of Lisbon, in which Spain recognized Portugal’s independence.

5 The JTS is the organisation responsible for managing and implementing the Interreg funding. See: www.poctep.eu.

6 See: https://inl.int/.

7 The Cross-Border Association of Municipalities of the Lands of the Great Lake Alqueva (ATMTGLA), see: http://lagoalqueva.eu/ATMTGLA/index_es.html.

8 See: https://inl.int/.

9 See: https://inl.int/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Annual-Report-2018.pdf.

10 See: http://en.eurocidadechavesverin.eu/.

11 See: https://portal.cor.europa.eu/egtc/news/Pages/regiostar-eurociudade.aspx.

12 See: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/HTML/?uri=CELEX:32021R1058&from=EN#d1e32-83-1.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Directorate–General for Regional and Urban Policy, Ex post evaluation of Cohesion Policy programmes Ò007–2013, focusing on the European Regional Ýevelopment Fund (ERDF) and the Cohesion Fund ÐCF), Contract Number: 2014CE16BAT047Ð.