From cohesion policy to Spatial Planning and Return: A Regional Look on Territorial Cohesion

Europeanization refers to the process of integrating EU public policy into the domestic discourse and national policy. Two main mechanisms of Europeanization of national policy planning can be identified: a soft mechanism characterized by policy transfer and learning, and a hard mechanism determined by the obligation to comply to EU regulations. The aim of the article is to explore these mechanisms of Europeanization within the regional cohesion policy context in Italy. The first will be illustrated by results of PRIN survey on stakeholder awareness of key concepts of European territorial development mainstream; the second mechanism will be showed by the analysis of ROPs elaborated by Italian Regions under ERDF policy process.