EU cohesion policy and competing models of European capitalism

EU cohesion policy as we have known it since 1988 is under threat. This contestation is best understood as part of a deepening struggle over EU governance, pitting neoliberals against proponents of regulated capitalism. Cohesion policy has been the flagship of European regulated capitalism. Political and policy pressures have unravelled the support base of this policy, but they have not undone the coalition in favour of regulated capitalism. The struggle between competing models of European capitalism has only just begun. This argument does not deny a role for functional imperatives, but it emphasizes that the link between them and policy outcomes is political.