Europe's Poison Pill : The Unintended Consequences of Cohesion Funds and Why They Must End

This book is for readers concerned with Europe's future-policy makers, scholars, and engaged citizens. It explains why EU Cohesion Policy has fallen short, uncovers its unintended consequences, and advances bold reforms. An essential guide to Europe's economic and political dilemmas, it invites informed debate about the Union's long-term survival.

For more than seven decades, the European Union has delivered on its founding promise of peace in Western Europe. Yet serious economic and political problems persist, among them widening regional inequality. Europe's Poison Pill exposes the hidden costs of EU Cohesion Policy, showing how initiatives meant to promote convergence instead entrench stagnation, distort incentives, and defer essential reforms. Drawing on historical evidence, contemporary case studies, and economic analysis, Nuno Palma demonstrates that structural and investment funds operate as a modern resource curse, weakening many of the regions they target. The book offers a roadmap for restoring Europe's competitiveness and institutional credibility. By challenging entrenched orthodoxies, it reframes the debate on Europe's future and confronts the costs of preserving a failed model.