ABSTRACT
Cohesion policy management, the principles underlying effective administrative capacity
and contacts with counterpart administrators abroad.
Finally, this article should inform the current debate about improving institutional
capacity for managing Cohesion policy. The regulatory encouragement given to
Member States in 2007-2013 to reinforce their administrative capacity for implementing
the Funds is strengthened in the legislative proposals for 2014-2020. One of the 11 pro-
posed thematic priorities is “enhancing institutional capacity and an efficient public
administration” and the Commission is proposing to include conditions relating to admin-
istrative capacity in its “partnership agreements” with Member States (EC, 2011). The
Commission’s draft concept of how capacity should be measured is, however, still rudi-
mentary (DG Regio, 2011, p. 25). Developing more effective benchmarks for measuring
and monitoring the progress of administrative performance and capacity is a critical task
when the next programmes are launched in 2014.
