Behind the Myth of European Union - Prospects for Cohesion (Electronic book text)

Despite the rhetoric of 'unification' and of a 'single Europe' Europe is still marked by sharp social and regional disparities. More acutley than ever, Europe faces the dual problem of how to ensure sustained growth and how to combine it with social equity. 'Cohesion' is the term cioned by the European Community for its aim of reducing the social and regional gap in the European Union. This book explores the real potential for cohesion in Europe. It assesses the difficulties facing Less Favoured Regions in the context of the Community's policies on economic integration and social cohesion, and the wider processes of industrial change in Europe. It argues that current measures which purport to facilitate cohesion will not be adequate. Most of the chapters argue that the Community's measure for promoting growth and productivity are biased towards the interests of the advanced regions and the major corporations. At itscore lies a critique of the prevailing neo-liberal growth philosophy which decouples the link between economic efficiency and social equity.; The book is divided into three parts, dealing with: * the macroeconomic environment: assessing the merits and weaknesses of market-led policies * the social dimension: arguing for an extension and deepening of European social policy * regional queations: concluding that the pattern is for an increasing concentration of economic power in the core regions and only partial revitalization in less favoured regions. The book concludes by making a case for putting cohesion measures at the centre of economic policy, rather than making them an adjunct to attempts to make Europe more 'competitive'. In doing so it defends a growth philosophy based on expansionist macroeconomic policies, active industrial intervention, protection of workers rights and active supply-side growth measure in the regions. Without such measures the pursuit of cohesion will remain an elusive goal.