Is structural spending on solid foundations?

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The European Union’s budget review, launched last year, is an opportunity critically to examine EU policies and instruments. Structural Funds are at the heart of the EU cohesion effort, and absorb almost one third of the EU’s budget. Their declared aims are economic growth and regional convergence, but these goals do not always complement each other. Allocation of Structural Funds is not efficient from a pure growth standpoint and, although with enlargement cross-country transfers have increased significantly, on average almost twice as much redistribution still occurs within regions as opposed to between regions.