Redesigning and Reforming European Regional Policy: The Reasons, the Logic, and the Outcomes

This article discusses the reforms to European Union (EU) regional development policy, or more precisely EU Cohesion Policy, which have been taking place over recent years. Following a discussion of the evolution of the policy, the changes in the rationale, the logic, the architecture, and the outcomes of the policy are examined from the start of the reform process in 2008 right up to the current context. The implications of these changes for the future functioning of the policy are examined in the context of wider impacts of globalization, institutional reform, and changing thinking in economic geography and development economics.