Regional development policy in context of Europe 2020 Strategy

The regional development promotes the balanced development of the European Union and, similarly, in all member state is treated as an integral factor of the state economic and social policy. Also, it promotes the growth model proposed by the future Europe 2020 Strategy, including the necessity of meeting the societal challenges, and those related to employment in the regions and in the Member-States. The appraisal of the implementation of the regional policy, whose goals and priorities were defined in the national and European strategic documents, calls for a general and specific objectives and financial instruments of that policy. This article contains information's and elements about the next programming period and future regional policy of the European Union, in context of economic and social cohesion and convergence. From the perspective of the Europe 2020 Strategy, the regions shall continue to attract differentiated support depending on their economic development level (GDP/per capita), as a clear distinction is made between "less developed" and "most developed" regions. (C) 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.