Conclusion

Chapter 9 concludes the book by summarizing the main arguments and findings, by highlighting the main limitations and conclusion, and by discussing broader implications for EU policies. The chapter recapitulates the three types of local responses to the ESF and argues that these findings shed innovative light on Europeanisation studies, as they show that usages of European resources and EU-induced change are two different phenomena, that the subjective perception of local actors need to be taken into account, that the character of the ESF as an integrated governance tool deserves greater attention in research, and that a de-nationalised perspective can be highly fruitful and helps to overcome the still persistent methodological nationalism in Europeanisation and welfare state research. Chapter 9 furthermore argues that the the study’s findings do not suggest greater accountability and stricter implementation procedures for the ESF as policy lessons, but that the role of the local level and its interaction with the EU should be strengthened and politicised, hence transforming the existing ‘bypasses’ into main routes of Europeanisation.