For more than seven decades, the European Union has delivered on its founding promise of peace in Western Europe. Yet serious economic and political problems persist, among them widening regional inequality. Europe's Poison Pill exposes the hidden costs of EU Cohesion Policy, showing how initiatives meant to promote convergence instead entrench stagnation, distort incentives, and defer essential reforms. Drawing on historical evidence, contemporary case studies, and economic analysis, Nuno Palma demonstrates that structural and investment funds operate as a modern resource curse, weakening many of the regions they target. The book offers a roadmap for restoring Europe's competitiveness and institutional credibility. By challenging entrenched orthodoxies, it reframes the debate on Europe's future and confronts the costs of preserving a failed model.

‘Palma provides a powerful critique of Europe's cohesion programme, which only led, perversely, to further divergence between leading and lagging regions. The book argues vigorously that Europe should get back to its knitting: it should focus on completing the internal market and devote its scarce budgetary resources to high priorities, which now include external security and defence.’

Barry Eichengreen - George C. Pardee and Helen N. Pardee Chair and Distinguished Professor of Economics and Political Science, University of California, Berkeley

‘Designed to bring Europe closer, cohesion funds have pushed European countries further apart. Palma shows how they distorted incentives, hollowed out institutions and stalled real convergence. This superb book is a forceful invitation to rethink a policy most European economists have long taken for granted.’

Jesús Fernández-Villaverde - Howard Marks Presidential Professor of Economics, University of Pennsylvania

‘Europe's Poison Pill offers a bold rethink of Europe’s cohesion funds through the lens of the natural resources curse. Palma’s provocative arguments identify unintended consequences, hidden costs, and ignite debates on better policies for Europe’s future.’

Vítor Gaspar - former Director of the Fiscal Affairs Department of the International Monetary Fund

‘The European Union is in a mess. I know it, you know it, Mario Draghi knows it. To extricate it, we need clear analysis and specific actionable policy proposals. This penetrating book is a very good place to start.’

James A. Robinson - University Professor, University of Chicago, and recipient of the 2024 Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel