Territorial Cohesion as Treaty Dimension of European Union's Structural Policy

Abstract

The paper, apart from introduction and conclusions, includes three subject-of-thematter parts. The introduction presents major assumptions of the EU's structural policy. The next part characterises the progress of the Community undertakings aimed to define the territorial dimension of Europe, pursued since the launch of the 1988 Delors reform, taking into consideration the consequences of the Lisbon Treaty implementation and provision of the Europe 2020 Strategy. Further in the paper the most important negotiation issues concerning structural policy of the EU after 2013 are presented. The fourth part focuses on the most significant conclusions for Poland resulting from the treaty based territorial cohesion since 1 December 2009. The conclusions underline the significance of structural policy for enhancing socioeconomic growth of Poland. (original abstract)