The impact of structural funds on local government in the EU: cases of the UK (England) and Germany

The introduction of Structural Funds and the control which the European Commission holds over them have created pressure on cities, whereby they have paved the way for a transition from local government to a networked form of local governance. Accordingly, this thesis examines the impact of European Structural Funds on patterns of governance at the local level and assesses whether they imply a move towards the harmonization of urban governance across the European Union (EU), considering four basic themes: horizontal governance; vertical governance; participation of the community, and policy learning through trans-national networks. Finally, after comparing and contrasting the impacts of Structural Funds on the deliberatly chosen case studies, namely the UK (England) —a highly centralized unitary state with weak local authorities— and Germany —a federal state with both constitutionally and politically powerful local authorities—, the study concludes that although the arrival of the EU funding is a primary shock to the existing structures, they did not induce a harmonization among the member states due to their specific circumstances