Cohesion policy and its contingent commitment to socio-economic equality between Member States

This article develops the argument that European Union (EU) Cohesion Policy constitutes a legal commitment to promote socio-economic equality between EU Member States. Although EU Cohesion Policy has always been determined by intergovernmental horse-trading to achieve other policy goals, one of Cohesion Policy’s purposes is to address socio-economic inequalities between Member States. This commitment is reflected in the EU Treaties and the budgetary allocation criteria distributing cohesion funding to the Member States. The inclusion of additional policy objectives and the use of conditionalities, however, undermine Cohesion Policy’s potential to reduce socio-economic inequalities. They not only divert the focus of Cohesion Policy away from the reduction of socio-economic inequalities between Member States but they also, at times, directly contradict this goal, and risk exacerbating socio-economic inequalities within Member States. Overall, this article shows that EU law’s commitment to addressing socio-economic inequalities between Member States is not absolute, but subject to a Member State’s advancement of the Union’s policy priorities and other Treaty commitments.