Structural Funds have provided lagging regions with significant amount of funds and, implicitly, have pushed member states towards institutional decentralisation. Significant changes have been introduced in this policy starting from the evolution of inter-regional resource distribution and the progressive enlargement of the EU that has determined a reframe of the territorial scenario.
The current crisis has determined strong and highly heterogeneous impacts across EU regions and pushed towards a reconsideration of main development policies in order to maximise their effects. While national effects and related policies have been largely debated, regional issues have been left relatively marginal in the whole debate about how address current challenges. The EU has proposed a reform of Cohesion Policy, but current troubles in public finances might undermine its nature of a structural policy hand in hand with national investments. Moreover, the current reductions in national regional transfers limit the margin of manoeuvre of regions, reducing their capability of backing the EU interventions, with the risk to undermine the process of regional decentralisation in Europe.
In order to address this challenge, the Territorial Capital (TC) approach can be seen as a promising explorative hypothesis. The TC theory is based on the recognition of the value of localised assets influencing regional productivity. These localised assets affect regional development and include both tangible and intangible assets, from infrastructure to human and social capital. Accordingly, regional development shall be based on investments aiming to improve the whole portfolio of localised assets.
