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The European cohesion policy constitutes a financial lever for many European policies such as research and innovation, the environment, education, employment, energy and public health. In some respects, it can be regarded as a policy of spatial justice in terms of solidarity between prosperous and poorer regions. As such, the articulation between solidarity and efficiency is often raised in European debates (Bachtler & Mendez, 2020). To further inform this discussion, our presentation examines the deployment of digital technology in the field of healthcare with a particular focus on the Croatian context and stakeholders' views on the role of the EU in that regard. If the overall sentiment is one of rampant and increasing digitalization of Europe, the DESI Index (European Commission, 2021) rather shows a significant delay, notably for Croatia, where inter-regional disparities are only dwarfed by intra-regional and urban disparities: Croatia ranks 19th of 27 EU Member States. Who bears responsibility for persistent regional underdevelopment and how can it be effectively addressed? This presentation is not intended to provide an answer regarding the use of European funds (that is a political matter), rather it seeks to clarify the issues at stake. Reflecting on European cohesion policy means resolutely taking into account the configuration of regional inequalities and understanding their complex nature. To inform this matter, we combined two relevant inputs: the scientific literature on cohesion policy and the national policies with which it interacts, and the preliminary results of an empirical analysis with key stakeholders in the AI-based health ecosystem in Croatia. Respondents (n=75) were identified stakeholders in the digital healthcare context: patients, physicians, engineers, jurists, hospital managers and policymakers. Our results suggest variable acceptability of digital health among stakeholders - likely correlated with low levels of digital literacy and skills among citizens. Furthermore, our respondents articulated a number of concerns centered around public and EU funds. The questions of political corruption, and urban and rural inequality are some of the elements that exemplify the positions of several respondents. Approaching cohesion policy in the light of spatial justice highlights the importance of questions of scale and in particular the difficult articulation between national and European policies. The nature of Cohesion policy challenges (competitiveness- efficiency vs. solidarity) and territorial priorities (inter-regional vs. intra-regional and urban disparities) calls into question its purpose, even though the stakes are high for a European project in crisis. We report on some of the limitations of the cohesion policy: - given that planning is a national rather than a European area of competence, the very status of the cohesion policy poses a challenge - the weakness of a common vision on the terms of territorial planning and development used by the different countries of the European Union. - the need to revise the Cohesion Policy into a clear and comprehensible tool for citizens in the service of development projects, less technocratic and bureaucratic, leaving room for more qualitative approaches in the evaluation of its effects. |
