Abstract
Cohesion Policy is a major investment policy of the EU, aiming at reducing disparities between regions. This policy’s key specificity is its regional and multilevel governance approach, mobilising stakeholders from several layers of government (e.g., EU, national, regional, local) for its design and implementation. Analysing its contribution to digitalisation can thus fuel wider reflections on the territorial dimension of innovation, and more specifically on the role that public policies can play to develop it. Indeed, Cohesion Policy has a long history of support to digitalisation, i.e., the process of diffusion of Information and Communication Technologies and their uses for diverse applications. Since the 1990s and 2000s, Cohesion Policy has highlighted the importance of a holistic approach to digitalisation, going beyond sole technological aspects. The prioritisation of digitalisation within Cohesion Policy has also been consecrated in recent strategies, such as the Digital Agenda, and through a gradual increase of dedicated funding.
Several rationales and expected benefits exist for a regionalised and multilevel governance approach towards digitalisation. The ability to adapt to local contexts, especially for less developed regions, and the potential to bridge top-down with bottom-up initiatives, are for instance notable assets. In practice, the Cohesion Policy framework has integrated regulatory mechanisms and other initiatives that could help to reap these benefits. During the 2014–2020 period, it notably includes the concentration of funding and specific requirements for ICT projects, strategic approaches/methodologies (Smart Specialisation Strategies—S3) and territorialised instruments (e.g., Integrated Territorial Investments—ITI).
First empirical evidence from the literature and examples of specific projects allows identifying successes and limits on how the framework of Cohesion Policy helps to secure the benefits of a multilevel governance and regional approach towards digitalisation. A key contribution of its framework is its ability to favour strategy-building and partnerships between stakeholders at different levels, for instance through ITI or S3. Success conditions for digitalisation-related activities also include administrative capacity and the quality of strategic planning. However, the less developed regions that could benefit the most from Cohesion Policy’s intervention for digitalisation may lack these favourable conditions. It is hence critical to support capacity building to fully secure benefits for all regions.
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Notes
- 1.
It shall be noted that the mentioned arrangements of Cohesion Policy have additional benefits beyond those listed (focusing on the regionalised and multilevel approach for digitalisation). Similarly, these arrangements might also have drawbacks for the concretisation of the expected benefits of a multilevel and regionalised approach of digitalisation. This chapter focuses on the extent of their contribution to the expected benefits (including the limits of their contribution in section “Reaping the Expected Benefits of Digitalisation in Less Developed Regions Through Cohesion Policy”).
- 2.
It primarily builds upon the existing literature and six case studies realised for the European Parliament: https://op.europa.eu/en/publication-detail/-/publication/a58141b0-f9d2-11e8-a96d-01aa75ed71a1/language-en/format-PDF/source-118127298—see the annex.
- 3.
As enabling technologies of a transversal nature, ICT-related expenditure tends to contribute to several policy areas, leading to difficulties for their identification. This leads to unavoidable ambiguities in the coding (e.g., through priority codes in Cohesion Policy) or classification systems to track them.
- 4.
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Pellegrin, J., Colnot, L. (2023). Digitalisation in a Multilevel Governance Context: The Case of Cohesion Policy. In: Teles, F., Rodrigues, C., Ramos, F., Botelho, A. (eds) Territorial Innovation in Less Developed Regions. Palgrave Studies in Sub-National Governance. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-20577-4_7
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