Does the EU Regional Policy reinforce the European citizenship?

Abstract

The European institutions are often described as distant, inaccessible and understandable to citizens. The EU Regional Policies, which starts at the local and regional level, however, shows that Europe is also a concrete construction. The files for EU funds, although it is often tedious, requires local and regional authorities to adopt a proactive and conscious approach and opt for an approach based on cooperation and partnership. Many politicians therefore consider that cohesion policy has helped to bring Europe closer to the citizens, giving the European project a more palpable face. We try in this paper to define what is European citizenship meant and to measure the impact of the EU Regional Policies to European citizens.