Towards Territorial Cohesion in Rural Areas: A Chrono-Spatial Insight into the Second Pillar of CAP
Towards Territorial Cohesion in Rural Areas: A Chrono-Spatial Insight into the Second Pillar of CAP

Summary/Abstract: Reducing regional disparities is a central objective of the EU, with a significant portion of the budget allocated to enhancing territorial cohesion. To achieve this, funds have been directed to disadvantaged areas. This paper presents a chronospatial analysis of funds allocated to rural areas across European regions (NUTS2 level) from 1994 to 2022. The aim is to evaluate whether this financial support has effectively met the EU's territorial cohesion goal by either bridging regional gaps or exacerbating wealth accumulation in already economically prosperous areas. We conducted a chronospatial and multiscalar analysis of EU fund absorption (Objective I) and examined the relationship between fund absorption and GDP evolution (Objective II). Results reveal a growing percentage of disadvantaged regions unable to absorb funds effectively between 1994 and 2022. This trend indicates weaknesses that negatively affect territorial cohesion and questions the effectiveness of the funding and EU policies. The findings align with previous research, highlighting the need for reform in EU funding allocation policies. Specifically, there is a call for more "place-sensitive" policies to promote better territorial convergence and address disparities (Medve-Bálint, 2016; Iammarino et al., 2018).

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