Regional competitiveness of the EU in the global context: EU developments from regional policy to cohesion policy
Regional competitiveness of the EU in the global context: EU developments from regional policy to cohesion policy

Author(s): Attila Ágh
Subject(s): Geopolitics
Published by: Kossuth Kiadó Zt.
Summary/Abstract: The “cohesion challenge” has been present from the very beginning in “the diverse Europe” (ESPON, 2010:8). The main goal of regional/ cohesion policy has always been to “reduce socio-economic disparities and promote real convergence in the European Union by investing in structural change” (European Commission, 2010j:2). The cohesion challenge came to the fore after the Southern enlargement, thus the year 1986 with the Single European Act is considered as the start of regional/cohesion policy, thus its 25th anniversary has been celebrated in May 2011. Certainly, it has become overwhelming in the EU policy universe only after the Big Bang of the Eastern enlargement. By now cohesion policy has turned to be the key policy field in the EU27 and regional policy has been treated as its special application. All in all, regional/cohesion policy is meant for merging the competitiveness and cohesion together in a common public policy with a territorial perspective or territorial development strategy as our motto demonstrates.

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