engleski

On the Regional Policy of the European Union: A brief literature review

The regional development has become one of the most challenging issues in the era of globalization, which shifts increasingly greater responibility for economic growth and development from the nation-state to the region. Uneven regional development – in terms of GDP per capita, production growth, employment, etc. – represents in the long-run one of the greates obstacles in the sustainable development of national economy. Bearing all economic and social consequences of regional disparities in mind, the balanced regional development has become one of the most important guidelines of the European Union, which uses one-third of its budget through its cohesion policy i order to reduce existing regional disparities. The Central and Eastern European Countries (CEECs), such as the Republic of Croatia, are all witnesssing the rise of regional inequalities within their borders. Thus, national governments have been increasingly aware about the role of the regional development and necessity to define coherent regional development policies. This paper deals with the key theoretical and practical issues related to the regional policy of the European Union in general and Republic of Croatia in particular. The theora and practice of the regional policy is supported ba the (brief) literature review which makes this paper a starting point for more comprehensive research on the regional development and policy. Apart from theoretically discussing the notion of regional policy, its creation and instruments, the paper also confers the current state and trends in the regional policy, as well as it indicates present and future challenges to improve the current regional policy approach.

regions, regional policy, cohesion policy, European Union, Croatia

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