Measuring the progress towards Territorial Cohesion: a TIA application to the regional development programs

During the 2014-2020 mid-term review (COM, 2016, 603 final), disparities across European regions have emerged as being directly linked to the ineffective capacity building in spending of Cohesion Policy funds, as well as to the poor use of innovative financial instruments. Therefore, European regions face the challenge of improving, in a short time, the effectiveness of their spending if they are to reach Cohesion Policy goals, improving territorial cohesion (TC). This is the main factor (pre-condition) determining involvement in post-2020 programming. According to the Investment Bank (Hyzyk 2018), the integrated use of the European Fund for Strategic Investment (EFSI) and the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) (Lee et al. 2018) helps with the implementation of TC. On the other hand, CEMAT (2017) proposed that functional regional typologies (FRTs) should be drafted to measure the level of TC in territorial comparative analysis of spending. In this regard, this paper suggests building systemic territorial functional typologies (STFTs) — beyond administrative borders — so that regions can consider and valorise geographical features in a cohesion-oriented spending process. The STFTs were developed using the Sustainable Territorial environmental/economic Management Approach (SteMA), an original territorial impact assessment (TIA) methodological approach, implemented via the Italian National Research Council, that highlights the relationship between territorialised spending and TC (Prezioso 2018). The paper addresses the following policy-related questions: (1) whether or not the level of TC influences capacity building in spending; and (2) whether or not TC is increased by building capacity in “good spending” by basing decisions on knowledge of local needs within geographical specificities. Taking inspiration from the Italian regions as a case study, a feasible option — to politically reconsider regional spending linked to TC — is put forward.