Péter Staviczky, Fatime Barbara Hegyi

European Structural and Investment Funds Journal, Volume 5 (2017), Issue 4, Page 264 - 276

This article highlights the relevance of State aid law both for policy makers and aid grantors when implementing smart specialisation strategies (S3). Smart specialisation involves member states or regions focussing their investments related to research and innovation on areas that will exploit emerging opportunities and market developments in a coherent manner, while State aid law contributes to the effective implementation of policies, controls the spending of public funds and prevents subsidy races between Member States, thereby enabling to the maintenance of effective competition on the internal market. The article aims to contribute to the cross-policy approach necessary for the efficient use of European Structural and Investment Funds. It also shows that complying with State aid law can be done with less administrative burden than in the previous programming period, however planning is needed to ensure compliance and to minimise risk of breaching the requirements. Thus, the right approach to State aid law is the early recognition of situations where State aid may be present and making the necessary steps to avoid the risk of repayment to the grantor (recovery).

Dragisa Mijacic, Jasna Zarkovic

European Structural and Investment Funds Journal, Volume 5 (2017), Issue 3, Page 187 - 199

This article discusses a methodological approach in examining cross-border networks for understanding the impact of cross-border cooperation programmes, especially on socio-economic development and social cohesion. Cross-border cooperation programmes bring together different types of beneficiaries and their interaction offers interesting opportunities to test brokering roles that arise from the interaction between them. Using the empirical data on grant projects from all eleven cross-border programmes between IPA beneficiary countries of the Western Balkans for the financial framework 2007-2013, collected through a complex exercise of analysing different documents publicly available at websites of contracting authorities and operating structures, and using principles of social network analysis, the study discussed in this article successfully tested the key hypothesis that civil society organisations are the most successful type of beneficiaries in providing brokering opportunities to bridge the structural holes between different actors in cross-border cooperation programmes, regardless of the programme measure or geography.

Peter Toth

European Structural and Investment Funds Journal, Volume 5 (2017), Issue 3, Page 200 - 210

In the 2014-2020 EU Programming Period, the role of cooperation in the framework of LEADER has been enhanced. For more effective cooperation, a better understanding of the differences and similarities in relevant rules and procedures in EU member states is needed. To facilitate this, the European Network for Rural Development (ENRD) set up a working group comprising of LEADER Cooperation Practitioners (PWG).

Thomas Dax, Stefan Kah

European Structural and Investment Funds Journal, Volume 5 (2017), Issue 3, Page 211 - 222

Transnational cooperation is a policy instrument of the LEADER programme that has been available to local actors since the start of LEADER 25 years ago. However, its potential for social innovation has been underutilised so far. An assessment of the international debate about the usefulness of the scheme and the analysis of a case study in Austria provides insights into obstacles and opportunities of this instrument. In particular, there are opportunities for a greater use of transnational cooperation due to increased spatial interrelations and the extension of the LEADER approach to other European Structural and Investment Funds, i.e. by implementing Community-led Local Development (CLLD). The current (2014-20) EU programme period might therefore provide additional stimuli for creativity in rural development activities.

Irene McMaster, Heidi Vironen

European Structural and Investment Funds Journal, Volume 5 (2017), Issue 3, Page 235 - 244

Non-EU Member States play an important role a number of European Territorial Cooperation (ETC) Programmes and initiatives. This article focuses on the role of non-EU Member States in ETC, specifically INTERREG, examining the basis of their involvement, what participating countries ‘get out of it,’ and how this may change in the future.