In terms of financial commitment, geographic extension and timeframe, the European Union's cohesion policy is one of the most important place-based programs in the world for the redistribution of wealth between regions and countries. But does it work? Is its impact the same in all countries? And what does the success or failure of programs financed by EU resources depend on? Following on the collaboration that began with the paper Spending for growth? Thirty years of EU policies for depressed areas the Senate's Impact Assessment Office, ANCI's IFEL Foundation (Institute for Finance and Local Economics) and AISRe (the Italian Association of Regional Sciences) organised a conference on The Impact of Cohesion Policy and the Future of Europe.

On 6 December at Palazzo Giustiniani there was a discussion among the following speakers: Renato Loiero, Director of the Senate Budget Service; Guido Pellegrini, Professor at Rome's La Sapienza University and President of AISRe; Antonio Caponetto, Director General of the Agency for Territorial Cohesion; Nicola De Michelis, Principal Adviser to the Directorate General for Regional Policies; Adriano Giannola, president of SVIMEZ; Ferdinando Nelli Feroci, president of IAI, the International Affairs Institute; Alberto Zanardi, Councillor of UPB, the Parliamentary Budget Office; Guido Castelli, President of the IFEL Foundation and Mayor of Ascoli Piceno. The meeting was coordinated by Carmine Fotina, a Sole-24 Ore journalist.