ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to provide the debate about the proper role and proper design of national regional policies in new Member States within the conditions imposed by the simultaneous implementation of European Union (EU) Cohesion policy in these countries in the programme period 2007–2013. It deals with a brief elaboration of the changing regional development context. The chapter also deals with the complex issue of the mutual interplay between EU Cohesion policy, national sectoral policies and national regional policy. It argues that sectoral policies often exhibit much more profound regional impacts than the ‘explicit’ regional policy. The chapter presents a proposal of the new ‘5 S model’ of regional policy, stressing the five key components of state-of-theart regional policy. It outlines several options for possible relations between national regional policies and the EU policy of economic and social cohesion.
