| Compared to the larger projects of the Single Market and Economic and Monetary Union, cohesion policy has often been ascribed a secondary role. Considered as a side payment from the richer to the poorer member states, it has been reduced to the political margins of European integration. In this paper, we set out to question this interpretation by placing the 'cohesion issue' in a broader socio-economic and political context. It is the main claim that cohesion policy forms part of a contest between competing political projects at the European level, and as such has played a crucial role in the renewed integration wave from the mid-1980s. |