摘要：Despite existing policies of regional development and cohesion at the national and the EU level,
economic regional inequalities or disparities stay relatively high or decrease too slowly. In this
context, policies to reduce economic regional disparities in the European Union are a constant
concern both for policy-makers and for theoretical and empirical research because of the strong
impact on sustainable development in general. In this study we combine elements of theoretical and
policy discussions with the empirical assessment of economic regional development in the European
Union in order to identify the state of regional disparities, what factors are favouring unbalanced
growth in different regions of the EU and to find an appropriate theoretical setting to understand,
explain and reduce with regional inequality in the EU.
