Evaluating The Cohesion Policy: Targeting Of Disadvantaged Municipalities

This paper deals with the evaluation of the cohesion policy of the European Union in the 2007 – 2013 period. The policy is analyzed with the focal point of spatial distribution of the European cohesion policy funds among the Slovakian municipalities in mind, with emphasis on the social and economic characteristics of said municipalities. As Slovakia was for the most part covered by the Convergence objective of the cohesion policy, with the exception of the region where the capital is located, the assumption is that the most socially and economically disadvantaged municipalities should have obtained significant amount of cohesion policy funding when compared to those municipalities that have better standing in these characteristics. The author clustered the municipalities in accordance with the known social and economic characteristics and the resulting clusters were then analyzed from the point of view of the amount of support the cohesion policy provided. The findings of the paper indicate that the support awarded to the municipalities in the identified clusters varies, however, the level of support does not necessarily follow the level of social and economic development, but rather follows the level of settlement hierarchy. Thus not fully reflecting the Convergence objective at the micro-regional level.