REGIONAL POLICY IN THE EU LESS FAVOURED REGIONS FOR THE PERIOD 2000-2006: AN ASSESSMENT OF THE EXPENDITURE ALLOCATION AND GOVERNANCE

The European Union regional policy is targeting to strength internal cohesion, seeking to improve the performance of the whole territory but with special emphasis on the less favored regions. In this paper we analyze the effectiveness of the Structural Funds in Objective 1 regions during the programming period, 2000-2006. Firstly, the EU expenditure is divided into seven categories, with the aim to identify which of them show a positive and real contribution to growth. Secondly, we test the existence of a national influence on the regional capability to take advantage from Structural Funds. Finally, we show how this country effect is related to the quality of governance of each country.