Regional Implementation Settings for Cohesion Policy: A Definition and a Measurement

This paper focuses on the outcome of Cohesion Policy (CP) on the processes of European Union (EU) identity building, by claiming that the context in which CP are implemented plays an important role in these processes. This topic received almost no attention in the literature, despite of its relevance in a time characterized by a persistent economic crisis, an unstable global scenario and increasing Euroscepticism. However, the impact of CP cannot be assumed to be the same across EU regions. Instead, it is mediated by a set of territorial characteristics defining different kinds of local policy implementation settings. The goal of this paper is therefore to conceptually discuss and define these features and, in the second part, to empirically classify EU areas across the alternative policy implementation settings. This analysis will allow drawing some implications on the relationship between CP and the identification of citizens with the EU values.