Shallow or Deep Europeanisation? The Uneven Impact of EU Cohesion Policy on the Regional and Local Authorities in Poland

Abstract

With this paper I aim at refining the understanding of mechanisms of postaccession Europeanisation in the new member states by investigating the impact of EU cohesion policy on the Polish subnational policy actors involved in its implementation. Drawing on recent empirical evidence on the influence of EU cohesion policy in three areas—administrative capacity, strategic planning, and governance—I show that adjustment to the EU cohesion policy norms initially tends to be stimulated by cost–benefit calculation or constraint, which may involve ‘shallow’ adjustment. However, the study also reveals that over time, provided that EU-imported norms are in line with the actors' preferences, socialisation and learning mechanisms become more prominent. Moreover, I demonstrate that the subnational impact of EU cohesion policy remains uneven and differentiated depending on the actors' preferences, attitudes, and capacity.