EU regional policy : has the UK government succeeded in playing the gatekeeper over the domestic impact of the European Regional Development Fund.

This research sets out to test the hypothesis that the UK
government has succeeded in playing a gatekeeper role over
the domestic impact of main instrument of European Union
(EU) regional policy, the European Regional Development Fund
(ERDF)
In relation to the domestic financial impact, this research
examines the UK government's implementation of the EU
principle of additionality: that EU regional funds should be
spent in addition to planned domestic expenditure.
In relation to the domestic political impact, consideration
is given to both additionality and the implementation of the
EU principle that regional funds should be administered by
partnerships involving national governments, subnational
actors and the Commission.
While this research traces the development of the ERDF from
its origins, the primary concern is with developments after
the 1988 reform of the structural funds. In this reform,
the allocation of funding doubled, the additionality
requirement was strengthened; and the partnership principle
was introduced.
It was found that despite the sustained and sometimes
collaborative efforts of the Commission and subnational
actors to undermine the role of UK national government in
the implementation of EU regional policy, these efforts have
thus far met with limited success.
While this findings may inform existing theories of EU
regional policy-making, this thesis argues that existing
theories are too general to guide case studies of single
government action such as this. Moreover, existing theories
tend to focus on EU-level decision-making and neglect the
importance of implementation in shaping policy outcomes.
This thesis concludes by proposing a new framework for
analysing the role played by a single national government
over specific EU policy issues, throughout the policy
process. The framework outlined is described as the
'Extended Gatekeeper' approach.