Cohesion Policy, one of the EU's largest investment tools, aims at strengthening the EU's economic, social and territorial cohesion.  It delivers on the four dimensions of competitive sustainability under the European Semester: promoting environmental sustainability; productivity; fairness and macroeconomic stability.
The policy targets investment through the menu of 5 main thematic policy objectives (POs), each further broken down into around 40 specific objectives: 
  1. A more competitive and smarter Europe by promoting innovative and smart economic transformation and regional ICT connectivity;
  2. A greener, low-carbon transitioning towards a net zero carbon economy and resilient Europe by promoting clean and fair energy transition, green and blue investment, the circular economy, climate change mitigation and adaptation, risk prevention and management, and sustainable urban mobility;
  3. A more connected Europe by enhancing mobility;
  4. A more social and inclusive Europe implementing the European Pillar of Social Rights;
  5. A Europe closer to citizens by fostering the sustainable and integrated development of all types of territories and local initiatives.
A few key elements of Cohesion Policy:
  • It is funded through different EU funds (ERDF, ESF+, CF, JTF);
  • The largest funds - ERDF and ESF+ - target each category of region (Less Developed, Transition, More Developed and Outermost and sparsely populated regions) with specific investment intensities;
  • For certain policy objectives, such as Smarter Europe and Greener Europe, there are minimum investment requirements for ERDF.
The EU Cohesion Policy legislation provides a framework but is not a straitjacket. The programming jointly carried out by the Commission and Member States in partnership with regional, local authorities and civil society, means that each Member State can make investment choices in line with national and regional needs and challenges. 
This data story presents an EU overview of the  diversity of Member States' investment choices in the adopted programmes for 2021-2027 through a series of interactive charts. Country specific charts are provided in this complementary data story.

Examining national investment priorities

When interpreting the absolute and relative thematic investment priorities under Cohesion Policy funding, bear in mind that: 
  • 70% of the ERDF/ESF+ budget is targeted on Less Developed regions.  This leads high levels of EU investment per capita.
  • In less developed regions the high level of EU support represented a large fraction of public investment;
  • The EU thematic concentration rules under ERDF have an important influence in focusing support. This is especially seen in programming for More Developed regions under PO1 and PO2 where the relatively small volume of EU support must be concentrated (ERDF Regulation 2021/1058, Article 4);
  • The ESF+ budget drives the high level of support to PO4 overall. The ESF+ thematic concentration rules influence choices within PO4 (ESF Regulation 2021/1057, Article 7);
  • The availability of significant National investment programmes in More Developed regions (and the low level of absolute EU financing available) allows such MS to pick and choose where to mobilise EU resources;
  • The availability of different EU funding resources, based on different eligibility keys, influences investment choices. For instance:
    • Cohesion Fund is limited to 15 MS and in those cases CF availability limits the need for ERDF investment in PO2 and PO3
    • The eligibility rules for JTF target EU support to regions exposed to specific impacts linked to the low-carbon transition. 
The interactive charts below allow users to visualise and explore:
  1. The patterns of support by policy objective / fund / category of region
  2. The strong variations in ERDF, ESF+ and Cohesion Fund support between MS by category of region, by policy objective. 
The Global filter below allows you to filter all the charts on this page by 1) fund or subset of funds and 2) selected Member State(s). 

1. High level overview by fund / category of region (cohesion policy)

The chart below provides an overview of all EU budget allocations by Less Developed / Transition / More Developed / Outermost Regions under the ERDF and ESF+ and other allocations under the Cohesion Fund, JTF and Interreg (including IPA and NDICI).  
Less Developed regions receive 70% of all funding under ERDF/ESF+. 
Tips:
- Use the filters (top right of chart) to filter by fund and Member State;
- Use the buttons bottom left to toggle between the chart and a table of the underlying aggregate values;
- Export the underlying detailed filtered data from the "export data" item under the chart menu (three points at top right of chart)
1.1 Cohesion Policy: category of region / Funds vs policy objective
The complete Cohesion Policy overview by Member State below displays a highly diversified picture in terms of relative investment priorities: 
  • SE and DE have the highest shares (>30%) allocated to PO1 Smarter Europe;
  • MT an CY have the highest shares (>37%) allocated to PO2 Greener Europe;
  • PL and CZ have the highest shares (>20%) to PO3 Connected Europe;
  • BE and IE have the highest shares (>50%) allocated to PO4 Social Europe;
  • BG and HU have the highest shares (>12%) allocated to PO5 Europe closer to citizens; 
  • NL and FI have the highest shares allocated under JTF (41% and 24% respectively).
The high level of diversification can be better understood by examining the thematic concentration rules applied by category of region under ERDF (section 2) and ESF+ (section 3) and the thematic focus under the Cohesion Fund on EU TEN-Transport priorities and environmental investments.

2. Overview of ERDF thematic priorities

The following thematic concentration rules are applied to national and regional allocations under the ERDF investment and jobs and growth goal:  
  1. Under the "Less Developed" category of region, at least 25% of ERDF resources shall be allocated to PO1, with at least 30% to PO2.
  2. Under the "Transition" category of region, at least 40% of ERDF resources shall be allocated to PO1, and at least 30% to PO2;
  3. Under the "More Developed" category of region, at least 85% of ERDF resources shall be allocated to PO1 and PO2, and at least 30% to PO2
The first ERDF chart below presents an EU overview of thematic shares by categories of region. 
  • Less Developed regions have very high absolute amounts planned for PO1 but it represents a relatively smaller share of the total (31%) compared to Transition (43%) and More Developed (53%) regions.
  • Less Developped regions have a higher absolute and % amounts planned for PO3, with 13% allocated compared to 1% for More Developed regions.
  • PO4 allocations in Less Developed regions amount to EUR 16 bn, representing 11% of the total. Only 3% is invested in PO4 in More Developed .
  • All categories of regions have similar relative shares for PO2 (35%) and PO5 (7-10%).
2.1 Less Developed: variations in national ERDF priorities
16 Member States benefit from the highest intensity of support available under the Less Developed category of region. 
  • PO1 has a high variation in relative share (PT - 48% to LT - 22%).
2.2 More Developed: variations in national ERDF priorities

20 Member States benefit from the lowest intensity of support available under the More Developed category of region. As can be seen in the chart below the thematic concentration rules push programmes to PO1 and PO2 investments. Within those policy objectives there are also investments choices to be made between the 13 specific objectives available.

2.3 Transition: variations in national ERDF priorities
19 member states have regions with the intermedate "Transition" category of region status. The relative allocations under PO1 Smarter Europe and PO2 Greener Europe, while together they dominate the relative shares for all countries, show a high variability in relative share (PO1 25-70%, PO2 19-55%). For some countries no allocations are planned under PO3 Connected Europe, nor under PO4 Social Europe. 
2.4 Variations in regional programmes within countries
In presenting their Partnership Agreements, each country had the option to apply the thematic concentration requirements at national level (allowing more flexibility between regional programmes) or at the level of each regional programme.  Thematic concentration was applied as follows based on the national choices made: 
  • National level: AT, BG, CY, DE, EE, EL, FI, HR, HU, LT, LU, LV, MT, NL, PL, PT, RO, SE;
    (In particular, this choice is significant for DE, EL, NL, PL, PT, RO, SE which all have a number of regional programmes.)
  • Regional level:  BE, CZ, DK, ES, FR, IE, IT, SI, SK.
Poland offers an interesting example as a Member State which opted to apply thematic concentration at the national level, allowing for more flexibility in regional programming. As demonstrated by the chart below, there are differences in the % allocations for policy objectives 1 and 2 in the regional programmes.
Tips:
- Use the filters (top right of chart) to filter by fund and Member State;
- Use the buttons bottom left to toggle between the chart and a table of the underlying aggregate values;
- Export the underlying detailed filtered data from the "export data" item under the chart menu (three points at top right of chart)
2.5 Variations in ERDF allocation to specific objectives within policy objectives 
Within each policy objective the EU legislation provides for multiple specific objectives.  Where there are minimum thematic concentration requirements under the ERDF under Policy Objectives 1 + 2 - Smarter and Greener - there is still significant flexibility for Member States and regions to adapt and focus their investments on specific objectives.
The chart below provides a national comparison of the allocations by specific objective under PO1 Smarter Europe in less developed regions. The % intensity of support by specific objective shows strong variations. 
Tips:
- Use the filters (top right of chart) to filter by category of region, policy objective and member state;
- Use the buttons bottom left to toggle between the chart and a table of the underlying aggregate values;
- Export the underlying detailed filtered data from the "export data" item under the chart menu (three points at top right of chart)

3. Overview of ESF+ thematic priorities

ESF+ allocations by category of region are subject to specific thematic concentration rules. For ESF+ the concentration rules are applied by "specific objective" under Policy Objective 4, where the ESF+ has 13 specific objectives linked to the three broad themes of  1) employability and labour markets, 2) training and education and 3) social inclusion.
The ESF+ overview chart below shows the following patterns by category of region: 
  • The largest specific objective is "ESO4.1 Access to employment and activation measures" (making up 18-23 % of all ESF+ allocations);
  • The 4 most important specific objectives make up between 64% and 77% of ESF+ investments;
  • The share of 16% of the ESF+ allocations under Less Developed to "ESO4.11 Equal access to quality social and health services" is significantly higher than the 4-8% in other categories of regions. 
3.1 ESF+ thematic priorities (specific objectives) by category of region
Tips:
- Use the filter (top right of chart) to filter by category of region / Member State;
- Use the buttons bottom left to toggle between the chart and a table of the underlying aggregate values;
- Export the underlying detailed filtered data from the "export data" item under the chart menu (three points at top right of chart)

4. Cohesion fund variations in thematic priorities

The Cohesion Fund is available to 15 countries. It is delivered through national programmes and supports investments in the areas of Trans European Networks for Transport (TEN-T) or environmental priorities (under the Cohesion Fund Member States were asked to contribute 37% or more towards actions linked to climate action).
The chart below shows the strong variations in PO2 Greener and PO3 Connected Europe investment priorities under the Cohesion Fund.

More information

  • The underlying open data used in this data story is available in this dataset.  
  • The thematic composition of the Just Transition Fund is set out in this data story.  
Find out more about #CohesionOpenData  Website - Blog - FAQ - User Guide - Browse other data stories 
Contact: Regio-Eval@ec.europa.eu
Author: Caterina SCARPA, John WALSH, Dora O'NEILL
Data of Text: April 2023