EU域内格差に関する考察

抄録

Decrease of intra-EU disparities has been one of the most important tasks in the EU integration process. However, the accession of Southern European countries (Spain, Portugal, and Greece) in the 1980s anticipated expanding disparities among the member states. Until then, the EU had consisted of almost homegeneous countries, and the southern countries had developed to lesser extent than the original member states. The EU had to tackle this issue in order to realize upward equalization. Otherwise, the significance of the EU would be questioned.
Originally the EU offered the Structural Funds in order to solve such disparities. Since the 1980s, capital movement, especially foreign direct investment (FDI), has been expected to decrease disparities among the countries, together with the Structural Funds. This paper analyses the effect of FDI on convergence within the EU, mentioning the experience of the Southern European countries.
According to statistics on FDI evolution and economic variables, Southern European countries faced different economic situations after their EU accession. On the one hand, Spain attracted substantial EU FDI, and achieved remarkable growth in the late 1980s. On the other hand, Greece did not received much EU FDI, relying instead on the Structural Funds, but without recovering its economy. After EU accession, Spain and Portugal almost succeeded to satisfy convergence conditions for the EMU and introduction of the euro in 1999, although they still have some problems to solve. However, Greece failed to join the EMU because of poor economic performance. As regards real convergence, according to variable of convergence, GDP per capita, we find that while Spain converged especially in the late 1980s, Greece did not show any tendency to converge. However, in the early 1990s, with decreased FDI in Spain, it has not progressed to the EU average of GDP per capita. This is clear when we compare FDI per capita and GDP per capita.
The effect of FDI on economic development should not be oversimplified and overstimated. Even if disparities among nations have been resolved, there remains the problem of regional disparity. Any areas in Europe have a problem of regional unbalances, and, in the recent literatures, convergence has been discussed from a regional perspective. Taking Spain as an example, some regions, such as Cataluña and Madrid, have sustained higher development level, and enjoyed higher income per capita. On the other hand, some declined regions still have lower level of income. This difference can derive from whether each region could attract substantial FDI.
Thus, this paper concludes that there is a contradiction: while Spain converged at a country level in the late 1980s, Spanish regions rather diverged after EU accession. In the 1990s, FDI shifted from Spain to some Eastern European countries, e. g. the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Poland, which are regarded as promising FDI recipients. This implies that development depending on foreign capital in Spain has been interrupted, even though the EU integration process is going on. Although Spain still has some factors that attract FDI, it is necessary not only to rely on foreign capital but also to increase her own productivity not relied on foreign capital in order to sustain economic development as well as to break existing technological barriers whithin FDI.