Tuesday, June 25, 2013
2.03 (Binnengasthuis)
The purpose of this article is to assess the influences exerted by the European Union Cohesion Policy to the patterns of governance of the sub-national actors in Greece. It aims to achieve these objectives through examining the role played by the latest wave of territorial reforms and the austerity measures that were introduced following the fiscal crisis of 2010 in these processes. Since 2010 Greece has been facing an unprecedented fiscal crisis the parameters of which develop daily. Also, during the same period the absorption rates of the latest round of coordinated Structural Funds intervention in the form of the National Strategic Reference Framework (NSRF) have increased. Finally, the latest wave of territorial reform, the Kalikratis plan was put into action in early 2011. These three factors create a distinct set of influences for the sub-national actors of the country, either in terms of opportunities for capacity building and/or for democratic participation. Although some scholarship has examined the implications of the economic crisis for the Greek regions in terms of regional convergence, little attention has been paid to the administrative and political effects that it has in the Greek regional and local authorities. This article aims to fill this gap in the literature through the examination of the interplay between the administrative requirements of the NSRF, the Kalikratis plan and the austerity measures that were introduced following the crisis.
