ABSTRACT
There are economic, social and political arguments in favour of a regional policy at the EU level. Although on the global stage the EU is a prosperous continent, there are significant wealth disparities between its member states and its regions, which have been increased by successive enlargements and the process of market integration. In 2006, the GDP of the richest region in the EU (Inner London) was 336 per cent of that of the EU-27 average GDP per capita, while that of the poorest region, Nord-Est in Romania, was 25 per cent of the EU average (Eurostat 2009). Regional inequalities are far wider in the EU than in the US or Japan. Wealth is mainly concentrated in the central area of Europe, described in the ESDP as the ‘Pentagon’, delineated by Hamburg, Milan, Munich, London and Paris (see Chapter 5). Economically, such levels of disparities threaten the ‘competitiveness’ of the European economy as a whole on the global stage. Politically, such disparities threaten the political consensus around the European project of political and economic integration. If there is no commitment from the Union to tackle regional inequalities, then the ‘poorer’ regions and countries will feel that they do not benefit from European integration. ‘It is impossible not to display collective concerns for those who may lose from the process; and it is impossible for those who are perceived to gain not to be willing to compensate those who lose’ (Cheshire 1995: 32).
