Les fonds structurels européens : quels outils pour faire face aux restructurations ?. Expériences et réalisations passées

The article investigates whether and in what way regional and cohesion policies defined at the European level provide resources to alleviate the impact of company restructuring and processes of large-scale structural adjustment on workers and territories. It also looks into the capacity of regional and local authorities to anticipate such developments. Going back to the origin of EU regional policy, we find that it was precisely designed for the purpose of accompanying the completion of the single European market and fostering adaptation to externally-driven change as competition became fiercer. Since then, EU structural funds have played a double role. On one hand, they have been an embryo of a European policy for economic development, relying on public expenditure representing a sizeable share of the EU budget. On the other hand, they have led to implement a new governance system aiming to integrate a large number of actors in the definition of developmental strategies and reinforcing the regional level. The article acknowledges the great variety of situations across regions and draws some lessons from a few empirical cases. It concludes by identifying a number of necessary conditions to be fulfilled for an active utilisation of the structural funds, in particular when facing large-scale restructuring.