Regional policy in the European Union: The cohesion-competitiveness dilemma

The main objective of this paper is to analyse the Regional and Cohesion Policy (RCP) in the European Union over the last few years. The focus is from a critical perspective but does not involve a formal study of the results. From this perspective, our emphasis is based on how some selected factors have influenced the policies in their evolution and have determined the RCP for the programming of the current period (2007-2013): the theoretical explanation of regional growth; the political concept of the role of the EU; the development of the integration process; successive enlargements and, finally; the business cycle evolution. We understand the current RCP as a distancing from what has been expressed as its key objective: the achievement of greater economic and social cohesion in the European regions. Instead, the Renewed Lisbon Strategy (RLS) has been put into effect and has led to the cohesion objective becoming secondary to competitiveness. Some critical consequences could be derived from the point of view of convergence process for lagged regions: the imbalance between regional objectives and financial resources; the existence of serious difficulties for complying with earmarking; and the unknown effects of other policies on regional convergence.