COVID-19 as a systemic shock: curb or catalyst for proactive policies towards territorial cohesion?

The COVID-19 pandemic, originating as a health crisis but quickly expanding to other social spheres, had significant and asymmetric impacts across Europe, which potentially undermine territorial cohesion. Much has been written about the overall impact of the pandemic on the underlying thematic and budgetary focus of European Union-level policies with respect to territorial cohesion. However, it remains unclear to what extent policies implemented at regional and local levels in response to the crisis also contribute to territorial cohesion. To address this, we investigated the extent to which the pandemic constituted a ‘window of opportunity’ for developing innovative policies furthering territorial cohesion policy goals and objectives within member states, and assessed whether the crisis led to more collaborative, integrative and holistic policymaking. To this end, the research examined policy responses across 14 European regions by means of a mixed-method case study approach, including the analysis of relevant policy documents and over 100 semi-structured interviews with key stakeholders. We show that the pandemic led to the introduction of new short-term social policies to reduce socio-economic disparities produced by COVID-19 and accelerated the implementation of green and smart policies. Additionally, the crisis fostered greater collaboration between public authorities and key stakeholders, and between regional and municipal public authorities, although the long-term impact is uncertain. These findings could have policy implications for other crisis situations. Moreover, they suggest that territorial cohesion policies should be tailored to empower regions and local governments to use systemic shocks to draft and implement proactive social, economic and environmental policies.