Ampliación de la Unión Europea, divergencias regionales e inversión extranjera directa en la periferia europea

The Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) construction as well as the European Union (EU) enlargement from 15 to 25 members have taken place within a minimum institutional framework as regards common budgetary policies. The achievement of the Single European Market and the introduction of the single currency gave primacy to the idea that, beside an independent monetary policy implemented by the European Central Bank, the coordination of decentralized budgetary policies could ensure optimum economic conditions for the EMU. The European Union’s enlargement to Central and Eastern European countries (CEEC) has increased the heterogeneity of the community’s members. In this article, we will examine the convergence issue between Southern and Eastern and CEEC, trying to check whether Europe’s enlargement to CEEC is likely to increase asymmetries that are already quite significant between Southern European countries and the rest of the Union. This trend is reinforced by the patterns of foreign direct investments in the CEEC which tend to concentrate in a small number of countries and in only one or two regions within these countries. The EU cohesion policy has to face with this challenge. Lastly, we examine Europe’s regional policy as it is being renegotiated and try to lay down some orientations so that it should be profitable to the cohesion of all member states in an enlarged Union.