New European territorial challenges and regional policy. Annual review of regional policy in Europe

The EoRPA Consortium is a grouping of regional policy departments and agencies from eleven European countries which collectively funds a research programme on regional policy developments (and the reasons for policy change) in the EU Member States, Norway and Switzerland. At the core of the research is a comparative assessment of changes in regional policy and regional policy instruments, set in the context of developing European frameworks (the Regional Aid Guidelines and the Structural Funds Regulations). The Consortium also funds thematic studies on selected contemporary regional policy issues.

The EoRPA Consortium is managed by the European Policies Research Centre (EPRC) in the School of Government & Public Policy at the University of Strathclyde in Scotland. EoRPA is led by Professor John Bachtler and Fiona Wishlade.Regional development and the regional policy context in Europe have been shaped by macro-level forces in 2015-16 including: the aftermath of the 2008 economic crisis, the refugee/migration crisis, the United Kingdom’s vote to leave the EU, and environmental/climate change.

Following the introduction of new EU Cohesion policy and EU regional aid frameworks in 2014-15, which set EU-related maps and funding arrangements until 2020, the main changes in 2015-16 have been driven by national/regional decisions to re-shape objectives, maps, budgets, instruments and institutional frameworks to meet domestic circumstances and political needs.

This report provides a comparative overview of the current situation of regional policies in 30 European countries, as well as a review of changes in 2015-16.