New regional focus magazine

EU regional aid commissioner Johannes Hahn has said billions of euros of EU taxpayers' money has been spent with no clear strategy or benchmarks on whether it does any good.

Closing coal mines in the Silesia region will be particularly difficult, says Witold Stepien, a senior local politician from the neighbouring region Lodz.

While the regional funds account for a full third of the EU budget, they are somewhat under-reported. EUobserver's latest edition of the Regions & Cities magazine looks at the EU's cohesion policy.

When it comes to projects paid for by EU regional funds, most people think of roads in Romania or bridges in Bulgaria. But richer regions also receive money. EUobserver takes you on a tour of selected projects in Amsterdam.

From a purely economic point of view, it can be difficult to measure the effectiveness of cohesion policy. But - politically - it underpins a deal made during the 2004 accession of eastern member states.

The European Commission has promised greater flexibility for local authorities when it comes to delivering on-the-ground results - but it has also tied cohesion policy to the European Semester, a tool used to coordinate macroeconomic policies.