Articles
Implementation and Assessment of EU Regional Policy in New Member States
2014 Volume 2014 Issue 34 Pages 316-338
Details
2014 Volume 2014 Issue 34 Pages 316-338
This article aims to overview EU Regional Policy (2004-2006) in Central-Eastern Europe (CEE-8), and to analyze whether economic disparities of the NUTS2 level regions had been reduced in EU. To reveal the policy impact on the disparities, this article used freguency distribution and coefficient variation.
EU Regional Policy intends to reduce the significant economic, social and territorial disparities that still exist among European regions. Most CEE-8 regions are subject to Objective 1 regions that have per capita GDP lower than 75% of the Community average. In order to CEE-8 regions required to build basic infrastructure, EU Regional Policy in these regions assisted with large investment in transport and human resources.
Spending to CEE-8 regions under EU Regional Policy (2004-2006) correspond approximately to 10-37% of the increment in the inward FDI stock, or 19-78% of general government gross fixed capital formation.
In frequency distribution analysis (2000, 2004, 2007), it was found that GDP per capita based on purchasing power parity in CEE-8 regions has risen overall. In addition, that of the capital region of CEE-8 such as Bratislava and Prague has risen to the level of the major urban areas of the core countries such as Stockholm, Hamburg and Ile-de-France (2007).
In coefficient of variation analysis (1995-2010), coefficient of variation in EU-wide (EU-15 and CEE-8) decreased from 0.37 (2000) to 0.35 (2007). By contrast, coefficient values in CEE-8 increased from 0.40 to 0.46. However, an increase in the coefficient of variation of 2005-2007 is a moderate compared to that of before accession to EU. Since 1995, huge influx of FDI contributed significantly to economic growth in CEE. However, regional economic disparities within the country have expanded in CEE, because FDI was not intended to be flowed evenly across the regions. It is thought that one of the factors which suppressed the widening of regional economic disparities in CEE-8 after accession to EU is starting in EU Regional Policy.
