When Country Matters More than Europe: What Role for EU Cohesion Policy?

This paper analyses the relationship between country and European identity, and how Cohesion Policy can influence it. While the two sentiments are positively correlated, empirical evidence shows that this association significantly decreased in the last two decades, jointly with an increase in the su...

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Main Author: Giovanni Perucca
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: AECR 2020-04-01
Series:Investigaciones Regionales - Journal of Regional Research
Online Access:https://recyt.fecyt.es/index.php/IR/article/view/71624
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author Giovanni Perucca
author_facet Giovanni Perucca
author_sort Giovanni Perucca
collection DOAJ
description This paper analyses the relationship between country and European identity, and how Cohesion Policy can influence it. While the two sentiments are positively correlated, empirical evidence shows that this association significantly decreased in the last two decades, jointly with an increase in the support of nationalisms and Eurosceptic parties. It is therefore interesting to understand what is the role of EU regional policy in mediating citizens’ identification. To elements of Cohesion Policy are expected to be associated to the citizens’ preference for their country over Europe: the intensity of funding and the perceived outcome of EU regional policy. Results show that regional divergence is mirrored by a divergence also in identity, i.e. citizens identify more and more with their country and less with Europe. On the other hand, the intensity of funding is substantially neutral in this process.
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spelling doaj.art-7f0b80656774497c86687d1210106f512022-12-21T23:15:03ZengAECRInvestigaciones Regionales - Journal of Regional Research1695-72532340-27172020-04-01464610.38191/iirr-jorr.20.005When Country Matters More than Europe: What Role for EU Cohesion Policy?Giovanni Perucca0Politecnico di MilanoThis paper analyses the relationship between country and European identity, and how Cohesion Policy can influence it. While the two sentiments are positively correlated, empirical evidence shows that this association significantly decreased in the last two decades, jointly with an increase in the support of nationalisms and Eurosceptic parties. It is therefore interesting to understand what is the role of EU regional policy in mediating citizens’ identification. To elements of Cohesion Policy are expected to be associated to the citizens’ preference for their country over Europe: the intensity of funding and the perceived outcome of EU regional policy. Results show that regional divergence is mirrored by a divergence also in identity, i.e. citizens identify more and more with their country and less with Europe. On the other hand, the intensity of funding is substantially neutral in this process.https://recyt.fecyt.es/index.php/IR/article/view/71624
spellingShingle Giovanni Perucca
When Country Matters More than Europe: What Role for EU Cohesion Policy?
Investigaciones Regionales - Journal of Regional Research
title When Country Matters More than Europe: What Role for EU Cohesion Policy?
title_full When Country Matters More than Europe: What Role for EU Cohesion Policy?
title_fullStr When Country Matters More than Europe: What Role for EU Cohesion Policy?
title_full_unstemmed When Country Matters More than Europe: What Role for EU Cohesion Policy?
title_short When Country Matters More than Europe: What Role for EU Cohesion Policy?
title_sort when country matters more than europe what role for eu cohesion policy
url https://recyt.fecyt.es/index.php/IR/article/view/71624
work_keys_str_mv AT giovanniperucca whencountrymattersmorethaneuropewhatroleforeucohesionpolicy