This paper presents a study of
the Irish experience of EU cohesion policy, with a view to exploring what the
Irish case can tell us about the conditionality of state’s adaptation to EU
policy values and practice. Using Bache’s (2008) framework for the analysis of
Europeanization, Multi-Level Governance and Cohesion policy, the paper finds
that Europeanization has resulted in a reorientation of domestic policies,
practices and preferences in the Irish case, but the consequence has been the
creation of Multi-Level Governance Type II not I (Börzel and Risse, 2003). The
governance changes that have occurred have been ad hoc and messy, and central
government’s response to them has been short-termist and financially expedient.
This raises concerns about the sustainability of knowledge transfer impacts
from Irish Multi-Level Governance and partnership projects within the formal
system of Irish government. More generally it suggests that if the desired
impacts of EU Cohesion policy are to be sustainable in the longer-term, more
attention needs to be given to effectively measuring and explaining EU policy
influence, so that we might begin to understand how it can be supported and
sustained in a variety of state contexts.