This concluding chapter argues that EU Cohesion Policy, despite its stated goal of reducing regional disparities, has failed and should be terminated. Consuming over a third of the EU budget, structural funds have not delivered convergence; instead, they have fostered dependency, misallocation, and a resource curse that undermines competitiveness and governance. The EU continues to promote unrealistic claims about cohesion’s benefits while neglecting its core mission: enforcing the Single Market. Evidence shows that subsidies distort incentives, delay reforms, and weaken accountability, harming both poorer regions and the EU as a whole. The utopian vision of equalizing Member States through transfers is unattainable and counterproductive. Ending Cohesion Policy would free resources for priorities such as science, innovation, demographic resilience, and defence – areas critical for Europe’s future. Reform faces strong political resistance from net beneficiaries and entrenched interests, but pressure from net contributors will eventually make continuation unsustainable. A serious intellectual debate is urgently needed. Cohesion Policy has failed for decades; prolonging it risks further economic stagnation and geopolitical vulnerability. The time to end Europe’s resource curse is now.