Barriers to Improving Regional Well-Being

This chapter analyses the weak and adverse effects of EU funding on regional well-being found in the statistical analysis in Chapter 5. Drawing from news media and interview evidence, the qualitative inquiry in this chapter highlights the high levels of skills and infrastructure in urbanized areas, which tend to receive the bulk of EU social investments. Five main barriers are identified that crucially prevent the benefits from EU spending from reaching poor and otherwise disadvantaged groups: (a) social and economic investments remain largely siloed; (b) social funding amounts continue to be small; (c) small amounts of EU funding are spread thinly and to richer areas; (d) severe information asymmetries work to the disadvantage of potential beneficiaries that may have otherwise been able to put forward suitable projects that benefit the poor, and (e) shortfalls in administrative capacity contribute to exacerbating adverse EU funding effects on income inequality in poor regions.