Monitoring European Integration

MEI 10: Integration and the Regions of Europe: How the Right Policies Can Prevent Polarization. Monitoring European Integration

• edited by Pontus Braunerhjelm Riccardo Faini Victor D. Norman Frances Ruane Paul Seabright
28 Mar 2000

Further European integration will increase the incentives for regional specialisation of economic activity. People and firms will increasingly cluster together with those that share their particular know-how and skills. Will this lead to a polarised Europe, in which some regions buzz with activity while others decline? Not necessarily - but the danger is there.

The central message of the tenth Monitoring European Integration report is that polarization is not inevitable: growth and cohesion are not necessarily enemies. Unless misguided policies determine otherwise, they are allies.