Regional policy in the European Union

Unless the EU rethinks the direction of its increasing intervention in regional economies, it is likely to repeat the mistakes of national governments in spending large amounts on programmes with a limited impact on economic development. Without a coherent and sophisticated understanding of the complexities of regional development, the pressures will be for more political fixes to maintain cohesion in the face of increasing strains. A more focused and advisory role would permit the EU to develop a more penetrating analysis of the nature of the problems and the most cost effective way of tackling them.