THE ROLE OF THE MANAGEMENT OF THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION AT SHAPING THE EU REGIONAL POLICY

The EU regional policy costs a significant part of EU budget and is influencing daily lives of almost half a billion of Europeans. The strongest position among in the EU institutional framework in the regional policy traditionally plays the European Commission. The purpose of this paper is to bring "more light" into the decision making process of the management of the European Commission in the area of EU regional policy, as this area is often perceived as a "black box" by the public, including professionals the academics dealing with the regional policy. The core of this paper is based on own almost six year professional experience from the top level decision making body of the European Commission. Our analysis identified the three main levels of the key decision makers responsible for the management of the EU regional policy and their responsibilities. The paper also identifies and analyzes six stages of the European Commission's Strategic Planning and Programming Cycle and four main European Commission's budget management approaches of the EU regional policy.