European Unification-A Process of Convergence, or Divergence? (in Greek) Athens: Historical Quest (2013)
Please note that this book is no longer available in the market due to the fact that the cooperation betwen Dr. Ioannis Vasileiou and the publishing house Historical Quest has ceased.
The Regional Policy of the European Union is one of the most important initiatives towards a deeper European unification, as its basic target is economic convergence. Despite the fact that all member states, without exception, have received respectable amounts of funds for their regional development, intense phenomena of regional economic divergence can be observed even in EU-15 member states. This fact inevitably jeopardizes the balance of the Union and hampers efforts for socioeconomic cohesion.
This book critically examines the existing regional economic divergence within the European Union in combination with the new enlargement. The aim is to draw conclusions regarding the design of the Regional Policy after 2013, always with cohesion as the primary target, in the context of an already enlarged Union. In this book, Ioannis Vasileiou presents many tables and figures in order to enable the readers to understand the main concepts in a more systematic way.
Apart from the introduction, the book consists of seven more chapters. In Chapter 2, “Regionalism, Structuralism and Regional Development”, there is a critical analysis of the aforementioned terms, in order to create the theoretical framework on which this study is based.
In Chapter 3, “The Regional Policy of the EU: A Brief Historical Review”, there is an attempt to present how the EU Regional Policy has evolved from its birth, till the current (fourth) National Strategic Reference Framework (NSRF) Cycle (2007-13), while in Chapter 4, a discussion takes place regarding the “Policy Evaluation Theory and Results of the Four CSF Cycles”.
In Chapter 5 there is an analysis of “The Economic Profile of the Regional Policy in the Context of the EU”, whilst in Chapter 6, “The Enlargement Context” is being defined.
In Chapter 7, “Case Studies: An Acceding (Croatia) and A Candidate (Iceland) Country”, a critical comparison between those future EU member states is being presented. Finally, in Chapter 8, a critical discussion regarding some “Concluding Remarks and Policy Recommendations” takes place, in the context of the current and future EU Regional Policy.
This book has been accepted by the National Library of Greece.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Chapter 1: Introduction
2.1-Region and Regionalism and the Connection Between Them
2.1.1-Region: A Definition of the Meaning
2.2-Regional Scale and Regionalization: The Framework of Theory for the Study of “Regions”
2.3-Dependency Theory and Structuralism: Core Against Periphery
2.4-Regional Development Theory: Regional Convergence and Divergence
2.5-Conclusions
Chapter 3: The Regional Policy of the EU: A Brief Historical Review
3.1-Regional Policy Before 1988
3.2-CSF Cycles: Towards A More Efficient Cohesion Policy
3.2.1-First CSF Cycle (1989-1993)
3.2.2-Second CSF Cycle (1994-1999)
3.2.3-Third CSF Cycle (2000-2006)
3.2.4-Fourth CSF Cycle (2007-2013)
3.3-Conclusions
Chapter 4: Policy Evaluation Theory and Results of the Four CSF Cycles
4.1-Policy Evaluation Theory
4.2-Results of the Four CSF Cycles
4.2.1-First CSF Cycle (1989-1993)
4.2.2-Second CSF Cycle (1994-1999)
4.2.3-Third CSF Cycle (2000-2006)
4.2.4-Fourth CSF Cycle (2007-2013)
4.3-Conclusions
Chapter 5: The Economic Profile of the Regional Policy in the Context of the EU
5.1-Regional Policy in Numbers
5.2-Conclusions
Chapter 6: The Enlargement Context
6.1-Acceding, Candidate and Potential Candidate EU Member States
6.2-Rules, Guidelines and Conditions for Enlargement
6.3-Pre-Accession Strategy and Negotiation Process
6.4-Conclusions
Chapter 7: Case Studies: An Acceding (Croatia) and A Candidate (Iceland) Country
7.1-The Case of Croatia
7.2-The Case of Iceland
7.3-Comparative Analysis
7.4-Conclusions
Chapter 8: Concluding Remarks and Policy Recommendations
Appendix: Maps
Bibliography