Mémoire
| Résumé : | The European Social Fund provides an important leverage effect for the development of local activation policies by funding employment projects. However, the ESF is not a simple redistribution instrument as it embeds financial incentives into the programmatic and procedural dimensions of EU policy. This raises the question of how local beneficiaries may react to this complex instrument. This study examines the reactions of local authorities in Flanders to the European Social Fund from a bottom-up Europeanisation perspective. By using both quantitative survey data and qualitative interview data, this research seeks to understand 'whether' and 'how' local governments respond to the ESF. The results of the study suggest that local governments in Flanders do not only seize upon the ESF as an additional funding instrument but also approach it as a cognitive instrument. The research found that local authorities used the ESF to develop innovative activation instruments and cooperate with partners on a larger scale. By focusing on local motives, this study aims to contribute to the understanding of the sub-national level in the broader Europeanisation debate. |
