The cohesion policy of the European Union represents a significant part of its budget and delivers interventions across all regions of the EU. There is little consensus on its efficiency, and its links to fostering convergence on the regional level are uncertain. Nevertheless, regions were shown...

This paper argues that some EU member states have been smart, or even dishonest. Splitting off capital cities from existing NUTS2 regions has given them an advantage in the Cohesion Policy funds allocation scheme but worsened the position of others. To explain the reasons and implications, we...