A General Study On The European Union's Regional Policy

The imbalance of regional development is an ordinary phenomenon in the process of world economic development. It has become a common practice of the governments of many countries to develop the regional division of labor and cooperation and implement aid policy toward backward areas. Western Europe is the place of origin of regional economic theories and regional policies. The development of European Integration is the most successful example of contemporary regional cooperation in the world and represents the highest level of regional integration, producing an important and far-reaching influence on world economy, politics and culture. The European Union (EU) and its member states have made great efforts in promoting the development of backward regions and reducing the regional gaps, and have accumulated practical experiences.From the point of view of the development of European Integration, this paper expounds the necessity of formation and development of the EU's regional policy as well as its special functions to the progress of European Integration. On the basis of introducing the structure and main contents of the EU's regional policy, this paper discusses the effects of the EU's regional policy and the problems existing in the EU's regional development, and summarizes the beneficial experiences of the EU's regional policy.This paper holds that the EU's regional policy is a factor with special importance among the factors promoting the development of European integration. It is quite important for a regional integrative organization's success to coordinate the economic development between the member states as well as their areas and make all of them benefit from the progress of integration, because regional integrative organization is a mutually dependent community of interests,composed of sovereign states. The deepening of the European integration requires the coordinated economic development of member states, while the continuous enlargement of the EU has increased the economic gaps between member states. The effective exercise of regional policy has eased the EU's regional imbalance, made the member states as well as their regions maintain the level of economic cohesion and social cohesion that is necessary to the progess of European integration. Regional policy is the precondition and foundation for the European Union to carry out other integrative policies and the important guarantee to push on European integration. The deepening and enlargement of European integration are closely related with the EU's regional policy.This paper explains the meaning and important significance of new objective 'Territorial cohesion' and mode of polycentric spatial development of the EU's regional policy. Facing the highly concentrating trend of the population and economic activities in central regions of the EU as well as its member states, with the long-term existence of backward situation of islands areas, remote mountain areas and peripheral regions with extremely sparse population, the EU made an examination into its regional policy and put out the objective of territorial cohesion on the basis of objectives of economic cohesion and social cohesion. The territorial cohesion aims at realizing the balanced and sustainable spatial development of the EU. Ways to realize the territorial cohesion of the Union include polycentric spatial development and a new urban-rural relationship, parity of access to infrastructure and knowledge, wise management of the natural and cultural heritage. This paper holds that the territorial cohesion and mode of polycentric spatial development of the EU are essentially the combination of balanced development and unbalanced development. The production of Territorial cohesion' and mode of polycentric spatial development represents the progress and improvement of the EU's regional policy.This paper discusses the impacts of location conditions on the economic development of islands of the EU. In recent years, although the islands have got a lot of regional aids from the Union, their economy is still backward, even some of them are in a stagnating situation, which has attracted a wide attention and led to an examination into the EU's regional policy. This paper holds that the location condition is an outstanding factor affecting the economic development of islandsof the EU. Because many structural problems restricting the economic development of islands, such as being apart from mainland, higher cost of transportation and communication, limited useable land and market, as well as limited supply of water, and so on, are caused by or related with their location conditions. The disadvantageous location conditions of islands make them difficult to join the catching-up process of the EU's backward regions, requiring the special assistance from the EU.This paper fully discusses the impacts brought by the eastern enlargement of the EU on its regional policy. The ultimate objective of the EU is to form an united Europe. According to the EU's plan, the number of member states will reach at least 28 by the year of 2010. But the economic level of these new member states is much lower than that of old member states. The European Union must increase the amount of structural funds as well as cohesion fund so as to guarantee the benefits of old member states and provide corresponding aids to the new member states, which wiSl add the burdens of old member states and worsen the contradiction of member states on scale and share of the community's budget. This paper holds that it will become more difficult for the EU to coordinate the interests of member states as well as their regions, and it will be a lasting and hard task for the EU to achieve the economic, social and territorial cohesion between member states as well as their regions. More effective use of the structural funds is imperative for the EU under the situation of increasing disparities and limited funds.This paper discusses the impacts of economic globalization on the EU's regional policy. Economic globalization is in essence a process of globally marketing, which makes the competition much stronger. Different countries and areas are being affected differently by economic globalization, because they have different economic foundation, different culture and investment conditions. Some of them benefit from the economic globalization, while some of them are margined, which widens the gaps between the poor countries and rich countries. In the EU, all the problematic regions including the undeveloped rural regions, frontier regions, depressed regions and swelled cities, are facing the great challenges brought by the economic globalization, and they need more and stronger support from the Union. At same time, in the process of economicglobalization, the regions have become the basic units of global competition, which requires that the EU decentralizes the power of managing the structural funds so as to fully mobilize the enthusiasm of regional and local governments, exert the economic potentials and advantages of all regions, enhance the integrated international competitive power of the European Union.