The Impact of Cohesion Policy on EU Identification (Horizon 2020 Grant Agreement 693427)

A major new study to understand whether and how EU Cohesion policy influences the European identity of citizens across the EU, COHESIFY was launched on 3-4 March 2016. Led by Professor John Bachtler and Dr Carlos Mendez of the University of Strathclyde European Policies Research Centre (EPRC), the project consortium comprises 8 universities and 2 SMEs from 10 EU Member States with complementary disciplinary backgrounds and applied and creative expertise in communication, branding and citizen engagement.

COHESIFY will focus on four inter-related issues:

• how European identity and perceptions of the EU and Cohesion policy vary at national, regional and local levels;
• the impact of Cohesion policy on citizens’ perceptions of the policy and identification with the EU;
• whether and how Cohesion policy communication strategies affect perception and identification; and
• what is needed to make Cohesion policy more effective in terms of people’s perceptions of the policy and the EU more generally.

COHESIFY is funded by the European Commission’s Horizon 2020 Framework Programme (2014-2020) Call number H2020-REFLECTIVE-SOCIETY-2015 Topic REFLECTIVE-3-2015 under Grant Agreement No 693427.