ABSTRACT
Government intervention is required to reduce considerable inequality by redistribution. The European Union (EU) creates a need for such redistribution on the European scale. The EU has taken it upon itself to redistribute funds so as to help the groups to adapt to the new situation. In this chapter, the author examines the theoretical foundations. He provides the essentials of the EU regime which institutions are involved and how do they devise and implement the policies. The author deals with each of the major dimensions of cohesion policies. For both regional and social policies, he follows the same approach, which consists, of the assessment of the major problems; of the presentation of the objectives of the policy; of its gradual development; of a critical examination of some of its major elements, in particular the funds and of an evaluation of its results.
