Rethinking the Governance and Delivery of the Cohesion Policy Funds Is the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF) a Model?

The Cohesion Policy Funds (CPF) have faced continuous debate about their effectiveness in reaching specified performance objectives, while at the same time advancing broader EU policy goals. The Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF)’s “performance-based financing” model, where payment is based on the fulfilment of milestones and targets, rather than reimbursement of eligible costs, is sometimes presented as a superior alternative and possible inspiration for the future of the CPF. The RRF model centralises authority in the hands of national governments and promises tighter integration of investment and reforms, with monitoring focusing on results instead of receipts. In this context, it is crucial to understand more precisely how the RRF model differs from that of CPF and how the RRF model has been working out in practice, in order to draw lessons for the future of the CPF, which is the goal of this paper.