ABSTRACT
EU Cohesion policy must adapt to financial constraints. The current maximum limit of the EU budget should be significantly under-spent even after enlargement. Additional expenditure for Cohesion policy in the Candidate Countries after 2006 should be largely financed by savings in the current Member States. This chapter examines how the policy positions of the EU25 Member States developed in the years leading up to the 2005 negotiations, focusing particularly on the most influential countries. The key differences related to the financial scale and geographical coverage of the policy, with four main groups of Member States: those in favour of a rationalising Cohesion policy, Germany, the Netherlands, Austria, Sweden, United Kingdom, Denmark; those seeking to maintain policy support for lagging regions in southern Europe, Spain, Portugal, Greece, Italy; those advocating a continuation of policy outside lagging regions, France, Belgium, Finland, Ireland and the new Member States seeking fair and equitable treatment.
