Regional policy
Encyclopedia
Regional policy in the European Union
Although the European UnionEuropean Union
The European Union is an economic and political union of 27 independent member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community , formed by six countries in 1958...
is one of the richest parts of the world, there are large internal disparities of income and opportunity between its regions. The May 2004 Enlargement
Enlargement of the European Union
The Enlargement of the European Union is the process of expanding the European Union through the accession of new member states. This process began with the Inner Six, who founded the European Coal and Steel Community in 1952...
, followed by accession of Bulgaria
Bulgaria
Bulgaria , officially the Republic of Bulgaria , is a parliamentary democracy within a unitary constitutional republic in Southeast Europe. The country borders Romania to the north, Serbia and Macedonia to the west, Greece and Turkey to the south, as well as the Black Sea to the east...
and Romania
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
in January 2007 has widened these gaps. Regional policy transfers resources from richer to poorer regions.
The argument for regional policy is that it is both an instrument of financial solidarity and a powerful force for economic integration.
Regional policy in Italy
The major Italian experience of regional policy is the Cassa per il MezzogiornoCassa per il Mezzogiorno
The Cassa del Mezzogiorno was a public effort by the government of Italy to stimulate economic growth and development in the less developed southern regions of Italy. It was established in 1950 primarily to construct public works and infrastructure projects, and to provide credit subsidies and...
, set up in the mid-1950s to foster economic development in southern Italy. Originally intended to last for six months, it survived well into the 1980s.
New roads, irrigation projects and developments in infrastructure were built in an area where local communities who had suffered seriously from poverty, de-population and high levels of emigration. Tourism projects attempted to exploit Calabria’s beaches.
Regional Policy in the United Kingdom
UK regional policy was born during the economic depression of the 1930s, when heavy industries in the north were devastated.Assisted Areas were established, within which companies could acquire grants or capital allowances - known as Regional Selective Assistance - in return for protecting jobs.
The overall pattern of policy changed little in the next forty years. Despite criticism by a 1970s Royal Commission that it was "Empiricism run mad; a game of hit and miss played with more enthusiasm than success", governments of both parties maintained Assisted Areas. It was not until the 1980s Thatcher
Margaret Thatcher
Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher, was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990...
government that regional policy was significantly rolled back, with Assisted Areas substantially reduced in size.
Increasingly UK policy must operate within the EU regional policy framework, with its strong injunctions against unfair competition (generally meaning state aid).
The post-1997 Labour
Labour Party (UK)
The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...
administration reorganised regional policy, with RSA replaced by Selective Finance for Investment in England Scotland.
Regional policy in the United States
- Tennessee Valley AuthorityTennessee Valley AuthorityThe Tennessee Valley Authority is a federally owned corporation in the United States created by congressional charter in May 1933 to provide navigation, flood control, electricity generation, fertilizer manufacturing, and economic development in the Tennessee Valley, a region particularly affected...
- Department of Housing and Urban Development(HUD)