Regions & Cities 2018: A deep dive into the EU regional funds

than a national one? - was something De Boer
would rather not comment on.
EU-FUNDED HOTEL
Anyway. You must be tired after such a long day
in Amsterdam. Time to check in your hotel. The
Damrak street, which connects the station with
the Dam square, has eight on a strip of less than
50 metres, but what better place to stay than in
boutique hotel "The Exchange", which markets
itself as a "fashion hotel with rooms dressed liked
models".
Micropia: €2m
Photo: Peter Teffer
example, Bucharest, but stressed that the share
of regional funding going to richer countries was
much smaller.
"We use it to address deficits in our economy,"
he noted. In Amsterdam the ERDF money is used
to reduce disparities within the city, rather than
arrive at the end goal of EU regional policy: full
cohesion between all regions. But that is allowed.
In effect, the money is used for classic regional
policy. The question - what the added value was
For years the Damrak street had a bad reputation,
but it is being cleaned up.
In the ERDF period 2007-2013, a real estate
company was granted two subsidies totalling at
€6.2m to help buy 13 buildings and renovate
them. In the same period, another €4.8m of
ERDF money was granted as co-financing for the
development of "The Exchange" hotel.
It is not the cheapest hotel in the street, but after
spending the night here, you can say that you
slept in a hotel part-financed by EU taxpayer
money. However, the hotel's spokeswoman said
she did not know the hotel had received EU
funding.
of receiving the money from an EU fund rather
Westerkerk: €327,858
Photo: Peter Teffer
07 — REGIONS & CITIES 2018