Territorial effects of EU policies: which social outcomes at the local level?

Abstract

The majority of EU policies are "shared policies", meaning that they are implemented by member states (MSs) within the framework of long-term, strategic agreements. Consequently, very few EU policies have direct local impacts because they are re-arranged in relation to national policies. This is the case with territorial policies, but even more so with social policies, for which the EU has a restricted scope of influence, operating with weak regulations, cooperation mechanisms and limited financial schemes. Hence, the social outcomes of EU policies are not usually evident at the local level. The chapter identifies three reasons that they impact EU territories unevenly. First, the idea of territoriality is not prominent in EU social policies; second, funding sources for specific programmes are not designed to integrate social and territorial policies; and third, the degree of variation between member states in their responses shows heterogeneity of options for intervening on social policy domains.