Why the EU should not run regional policy

Open Europe has published an in-depth report into the EU's Structural and Cohesion Funds (SCF) - 'Why the EU should not run regional policy'. The report on the regional spending programmes finds that they are poorly targeted on the worst off areas; waste large sums on bureaucratic costs; and fail to boost growth and employment.

While the UK and some other member states have argued for control of such spending to be returned to the national level, this was rejected by other member states.

Open Europe is an independent think tank set up by some of the UK’s leading business people to contribute new thinking to the debate about the direction of the EU.

Open Europe: Press Release, 21.12.07: New report says £7.2 billion EU regional programmes are 'massive failure' http://www.openeurope.org.uk/media-centre/pressrelease.aspx?pressreleaseid=61

---