Impact and effectiveness of the structural funds and EU policies aimed at SMEs in the regions

This study provides a description of the general nature of SMEs and their development factors as well as the support that Cohesion Policy and other EU policies provide to SMEs. It then assesses practical aspects and effects of Cohesion Policy on enterprises and SMEs on the basis of a review of published materials and eight case studies drawn from SMErelevant ERDF OPs from 2007-2013; where possible, it also includes lessons learnt from 2000-2006. The conclusions and policy recommendations put forward clearly highlight the complex relationship between EU policies and SMEs as final beneficiaries of support in the EU multilevel governance system

Conditionalities and the performance of European structural funds : a principal-agent analysis of control mechanisms in EU cohesion policy

In the context of debates on the performance of EU Cohesion policy, this paper considers how the EU has used control mechanisms to influence the use of Structural Funds by Member States. Using the principal-agent model, this paper examines empirically three case studies of conditionalities applied to the absorption of funding (decommitment rule), outcomes of interventions (performance reserve) and targeting of expenditure (earmarking) in EU programmes over the 2000-13 period. The findings reveal different levels of effectiveness of the three conditionalities, attributable to the differential scope for trade-offs during the regulatory negotiations, external pressure and principal self-interest. From a policy perspective, the paper discusses an effectiveness threshold for introducing controls, the tensions between multiple conditionalities, and the limitations of top-down control mechanisms in influencing agent behaviour