The European Union’s Cohesion Policy for 2021-27 represents a substantial commitment to regional development. Cohesion Policy funds provide nearly EUR 400 billion, complemented by additional funding from EU Member States, to support a highly diverse range of beneficiaries, including local and national authorities, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), civil society organisations (CSOs), research institutions and community groups. These investments target an expansive array of sectors, from infrastructure modernisation, digital innovation and social inclusion initiatives to green transition and climate resilience. Nevertheless, this funding period and the forthcoming one (2028-34) are marked by transformative changes and uncertainties, shaped by economic fluctuations and evolving policy priorities in response to global crises such as geopolitical tensions and rapid technological advances.
Regardless of how Cohesion Policy evolves – whether through new priorities, regulatory frameworks or governance models, a cross-cutting prerequisite for the success of Cohesion Policy is the capacity of beneficiaries. While many studies have explored administrative and technical capacity of the public administration systems managing the funds, research focusing on beneficiaries themselves remains limited. Meanwhile, the substantial diversity of beneficiaries – across countries and regions, organisational types and sectors – underscores the need to better understand their distinct capacity needs and to design tailored, evidence-based capacity-building measures. Building beneficiary capacity means not only enabling beneficiaries to navigate Cohesion Policy regulatory demands efficiently, but also to develop and execute strategic and high-quality investments that contribute to Cohesion Policy objectives, sustainable development and regional resilience.
Organisations managing the Cohesion Policy funds across countries and regions (“managing authorities”) play a crucial role in advancing beneficiary capacity. Their proximity to beneficiaries and sectoral or regional realities places them in a unique position to build enabling frameworks for project development, management and monitoring. However, managing authorities themselves frequently encounter challenges related to staffing shortages, gaps in expertise and resource constraints. Supporting their capacity is therefore essential to ensuring that Cohesion Policy investments have a tangible and long-term impact.
This report is the outcome of the European Commission-OECD pilot project “Supporting managing authorities to build Cohesion Policy capacities”. Launched by the European Commission’s Directorate General for Regional and Urban Policy (DG REGIO), this pilot supported six managing authorities: the Managing Authority of Corsica ERDF-ESF+ Regional Programme in France; Managing Authority of Emilia-Romagna ERDF Regional Programme in Italy; Managing Authority of Programme Technical Assistance for European Funds in Poland; Managing Authority of Programme Sustentável 2030 in Portugal; Managing Authority of North-East Regional Programme in Romania; and Managing Authority/Joint Secretariat of Danube Region Programme. Throughout the pilot, OECD experts from the Centre for Entrepreneurship, SMEs, Regions and Cities, and the Directorate for Public Governance provided technical support to these managing authorities and their relevant stakeholders to co-develop action plans for beneficiary capacity building. This project builds on lessons from the earlier 2018-22 European Commission-OECD pilot project “Frontloading administrative capacity building for post-2020” and the 2020 OECD report Strengthening Governance of EU Funds under Cohesion Policy.