The European economy has been hit by the global economic crisis and downgraded it significantly and therefore the European Union has in its key document for the next period Strategy Europe 2020 set smart, sustainable and inclusive growth as its main goal. To achieve this, the growth and development of all its member states and not just the most developed. In order to accomplish this, there is the cohesion policy of the European union and its goal is to alleviate the developmental inequalities and to achieve an equal and sustainable development of all its member states. The European union stands for solidarity and it aims to ensure equal quality of life to all its citizens and accomplishes this by helping poorer regions reach the standard of richer regions. Using its cohesion policy, the European union fosters the creation of new workplaces, competitive economies, innovation and education investments, sustainable development and generally the betterment of quality of life. The European union’s cohesion policy is implemented through five funds and the three main funds are the European Regional Development Fund, the Cohesion Fund and the European Social Fund. Besides the three aforementioned funds, in the financial period 2014-2020 there is also the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development and the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund. The aim of this study is to compare the utilization of the available resources from the aforementioned funds and their influence on the economic and social prosperity of the EU Member States. CEE countries with special emphasis on Croatia have been researched.