INTER-REGIONAL EUROPEAN COOPERATION. MECHANISMS, OPPORTUNITIES, AND BENEFITS OF DIALOGUES BETWEEN REGIONAL ACTORS IN THE CONTEXT OF THE 2021-2027 COHESION POLICY.

The main problem when discussing cohesion policy is its results are challenging to measure. Even if, for almost thirty years' community action tried to solve regional disparities, considerable differences between certain parts of the European Union still exist nowadays. Therefore, the future purpose of territorial cooperation should be to support joint initiatives that establish cross-border and transnational network cooperation. This paper aims to determine the importance of inter-regional cooperation to increase the Cohesion Policy's performance. We would try to show that the regions facing the most significant difficulties in identifying comparative advantages and generating innovative specialization strategies either lack the historical or traditional basis for regional projects or do not have structures to represent them inter-regional dialogues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]