ABSTRACT
This chapter explores how Spanish and Slovak governing elites conceptualized the 'added value' of cohesion policy and what coordinative regimes they put in place to consolidate programmatic synergies and maximize the impact of European Union funding. It also explores the positive influence that joined-up government has on safeguarding efficiency. The attention falls on the dynamics of 'joined-up government' understood as the connection and interchange between programmes or service delivery by different public agencies. The chapter explains the synchronizing dynamics instigated by the Spanish and Slovak government, to demonstrate how different coordinative strategies and joined-up efforts impact final Structural Funds (SF) outputs. In the context of cohesion policy, clearing up expectations and reinforcing credible reporting can promote the sharing of reliable information and data, but perhaps, more importantly, bring SF and domestic agencies' accountability into alignment. Such linkages can reinforce collective responsibility for the performance and outputs of individual SF projects.
