The evolution of Cohesion Policy in 40 years of economic policy agenda

This paper aims to contribute to the current debate about the future of cohesion policy by putting the debate within the broader evolution of the EU policy agenda over the past four decades in the light of the overarching aims of territorial cohesion and economic convergence. We develop a new periodization of the evolution of the EU policy agenda based on the dynamic interplay of three factors: (i) the overarching political aim of the economic policy agenda; (ii) the evolution of the international and domestic economic and political context and (iii) the underlying economic theories that informed the policy-making process. We identify three periods as a result: the first, from 1987 to 1999 that we label ‘the age of hope’; the second, from 2000 to 2010 that we label ‘the age of innocence’ and the last, starting in 2011 that we label ‘the age of disillusion’. We then analyse the three periods in relation to economic convergence and cohesion policy, and discuss the implications for the future of cohesion policy and the objective of economic convergence within the current agenda of economic policy.