<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p>This paper examines the impact of the EU Cohesion Policy on the relative development of EU countries as well as on the development of NUTS-2 regions within member states. The main hypothesis is that the Cohesion Fund payments are reducing inequalities between member states, while failing to decrease the regional inequalities within member states in the European Union. The basic conclusion is that Cohesion funds should not be viewed as the only solution for the problem of regional inequalities in the EU, but rather as a complementary policy instrument to national regional policies. However, the problem of creating institutional capacity for the withdrawal of the Cohesion resources remains emphasized, especially in new member states with lower real GDP growth, in order to compete for projects of highest multiplicative effects on the economy.</p></abstract>

This paper examines the impact of the EU Cohesion Policy on the relative development of EU countries as well as on the development of NUTS-2 regions within member states. The main hypothesis is that the Cohesion Fund payments are reducing inequalities between member states, while failing to decrease the regional inequalities within member states in the European Union. The basic conclusion is that Cohesion funds should not be viewed as the only solution for the problem of regional inequalities in the EU, but rather as a complementary policy instrument to national regional policies. However, the problem of creating institutional capacity for the withdrawal of the Cohesion resources remains emphasized, especially in new member states with lower real GDP growth, in order to compete for projects of highest multiplicative effects on the economy.

Does the Cohesion Policy Decrease Economic Inequalities in the European Union?

Radmila Jovančević and Tomislav Globan are at University of Zagreb, Faculty of Economics and Business, Zagreb, Croatia.

Vedran Recher is at Institute of Economics, Zagreb, Croatia.

Zagreb International Review of Economics and Business

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

{"article-title":"Does the Cohesion Policy Decrease Economic Inequalities in the European Union?"}

This paper examines the impact of the EU Cohesion Policy on the relative development of EU countries as well as on the development of NUTS-2 regions within...

Does the Cohesion Policy Decrease Economic Inequalities in the European Union?

Published Online: Nov 27, 2015

Page range: 1 - 20

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/zireb-2015-0006

Keywords
economic and regional inequalities, Cohesion Policy, convergence, European Union, European integration

© 2015 Radmila Jovančević et al., published by De Gruyter Open

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Does the Cohesion Policy Decrease Economic Inequalities in the European Union?

Published Online: Nov 27, 2015

Page range: 1 - 20

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/zireb-2015-0006

Keywordseconomic and regional inequalities, Cohesion Policy, convergence, European Union, European integration

© 2015 Radmila Jovančević et al., published by De Gruyter Open

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Keywords
economic and regional inequalities, Cohesion Policy, convergence, European Union, European integration