The European Union needs to become more capable - also, but not only, for future enlargements. Cohesion policy is still part of the problem. However, it can become more part of the solution again, argues Michael Thöne, once the fiscal architecture of cohesion policy is openly acknowledged in its function also as a European financial equalisation and refined in a more subsidiary manner. The paper is published simultaneously in German as FiFo Discussion Paper 24-02 and in English as ZEW Discussion Paper 24-038.