Convergence regions in European Union: features and the evaluation

The process of alignment of socio-economic development of countries and regions in the European Union (EU) - is an important aspect of European integration, which is ambiguous. Common Market Act, which is aimed at improving the economic efficiency of the entire EU, became the subject of many discussions of European researchers, which claimed that its viability on the political and socioeconomic levels depends on the ability to fairly distribute the resulting gains between countries and regions in the EU. As the result of these discussions there was a significant increase in funds allocated for the development of the regions of the EU Structural Funds, the Cohesion Fund and consolidation goals to equalize levels of development of the regions in the first section of the Single European Act. How effective are these efforts shows the presented analysis and assessment of regional convergence (by GDP per capita at purchasing power parity) during the economic boom of the EU (1995-2004) and in the period 2004-2011, when 12 countries in Central and Eastern Europe joined the EU at the same time.