This chapter discusses factors that contributed to different economic dynamics across European regions and the prevailing disparities. The impact of EU Cohesion Policy in reducing disparities is studied based on the empirical evidence on the effects of EU regional policy. With more than thirty...

The article reviews the main theories of development in order to provide a solid background to discuss one of the most important EU policies – the Regional and Cohesion Policy. Firstly, its weight is given by the fact it represents EU’s major development policy, by means of which the EU...

The paper presents a critical assessment of EU Cohesion Policy's rationale and specific features through the lenses of theories loosely referred to as "new industrial policy". Theoretical work in this areas is important in order to clarify the role of Cohesion Policy in the context of the...