Third report on economic and social cohesion

The third cohesion report seems to have been written primarily as a defence of the structural funds operations. They are promoted as growth policies against the background of the classical economic dilemma, which has been raised recently in some influential and critical analyses of EU regional policies, namely, whether regional policies act as a burden or as a resource from the macro-economic point of view. The report thus attempts to respond to views questioning the need for a regional dimension in EU policy strategies.