‘Community Support? Municipalities’ use of EU cohesion funds in response to Covid-19: current experience and lessons for the future’

Municipal authorities across the EU are struggling to navigate through the Covid-19 pandemic, with many having to rely upon EU cohesion fund to maintain public services.

Our new study, written by three experts at the European Policies Research Centre Delft, ‘Community Support? Municipalities’ use of EU cohesion funds in response to Covid-19: current experience and lessons for the future’ looks in details how regional authorities and municipalities have had to battle against rising expenditure amidst falling tax revenue, and using cohesion fund to plug the gaps in public services when national governments have been unable to provide regional help and financial assistance. 

The authors looked at six specific case studies – Lanarca in Cyprus, Corsica, Rotterdam, Slovenia and the German-Polish cross-border region of Frankfurt an der Oder/Słubice – and asked what questions can be learned from the successes and failures in the organisational and distribution of cohesion funds in the various EU’s crisis support packages,

How efficient and accessible are EU crisis measure like CRII+ and REACT-EU for municipalities? What lessons can be learned for EU policy, what recommendations can be given to Member States, regions and the local level? What are implications more broadly for EU regional cohesion policy?