Abstract:

Programming period 2014 - 2020 was grounded in a context where the European Union is facing major crises at both economic and social level as well as failures such as the TTIP, relationship with Turkey, Brexit etc.  Structural shift in the economy at European level did not change significantly, but the differences between East and West and inequalities between Member States or between regions were maintained or even increased. The innovative potential was kept congealed in the Western European Union, while the East is trapped in an economic model based on the competitiveness of the price of certain production elements, especially the production labor factor. Conservation of the competitiveness elements imposed the diversification of the tools that are part of the policies pursued by the European Commission. To do this, the cohesion policy has devoted increasingly larger importance to territorial approaches. Barca report mentions that interventions based on territoriality are superior to blind interventions that are based on a bottom-up approach. Territorial approaches are based on local know-how, on local control of resources, and an implementation framework adapted to the specific characteristics of the territory.