Skip to main content
Fachgebiete
Automobil + Motoren Bauwesen + Immobilien Business IT + Informatik Elektrotechnik + Elektronik Energie + Nachhaltigkeit Finance + Banking Management + Führung Marketing + Vertrieb Maschinenbau + Werkstoffe Versicherung + Risiko
DE
EN
Bücher
Zeitschriften
Themenseiten
Organisationspsychologie Projektmanagement Marketing Smart Manufacturing
Weitere Formate
Podcasts Webinare Technik Webinare Wirtschaft Kongresse Veranstaltungskalender Awards
Jetzt Einzelzugang starten
Zugang für Unternehmen
Referenzkunden
SLX-Digitalkonferenz: Zukunftswerkstatt 2024

Mehr Umsatz mit Top-Kontakten

Am 7. Mai erfahren Sie, wie Vertriebsteams Leadgenerierung, Leadnurturing und Leadstrategien effizient steuern können.
Erweiterte Suche
Anmelden
nach oben

1994 | Buch

Introduction Kapitel lesen Erstes Kapitel lesen

Improving Economic and Social Cohesion in the European Community

herausgegeben von: Jørgen Mortensen

Verlag: Palgrave Macmillan UK

Enthalten in: Professional Book Archive

Einloggen, um Zugang zu erhalten
insite
SUCHEN

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Frontmatter

Introductory

Frontmatter
1. Introduction
Abstract
As Commission Vice-President Christophersen pointed out in his keynote speech to the CEPS conference which gave rise to this book, economic and social cohesion is not a new concept in the Community’s policy-making framework. The Luxembourg and Rome Treaties made it clear that the European Community was not and should not be just an extended free-trade area but a framework for the formulation of common policies and a common legal order.
Jørgen Mortensen
2. Cohesion policy before and after Maastricht
Abstract
Economic and social cohesion is one of the most important objectives of the European Community. It lies, in the Commission’s view, at the very heart of European integration.
Henning Christophersen
3. European integration: economic analysis and social reality
Abstract
In 1952, at the opening of the intergovernmental conference on the establishment of the European Coal and Steel Community, Jean Monnet spoke the historic words: “Nous sommes là pour accomplir une oeuvre commune, non pour négocier des avantages mais pour rechercher notre avantage dans l’avantage commun”. In his view this common advantage was the safeguarding of peace through the mutual economic dependence of the members of a strong supranational institution. In practical policy-making the attention has shifted from common advantages to member-country advantages. This is only logical as the cohesion of the EC is based on a fair distribution of cost and benefits.
Willem Molle

Explaining regional and social inequalities

Frontmatter
4. A comparison of regional differentials in the European Community and the United States
Abstract
As has often been noted, the United States and the European Community share a number of common economic features. First and foremost are size and living standards. The population of the United States at the beginning of this decade was about 250 million, as against a European Community figure of some 325 million (270 million if Greece, Portugal and Spain are excluded). Total output, expressed in purchasing-power parities, differed marginally between the $5,400bn of the United States and the EC’s $5,100bn, though GDPs per capita, at $21,400 and $15,600 respectively, differed more substantially. Both areas displayed relatively limited openness to foreign trade (once intra-Community exchanges are excluded from the EC data). The share of each in merchandise exports and imports in total output was 17–18%.1
Andrea Boltho
5. Regional disparities and Community policy
Abstract
The Community’s interest in the regions and their disparities has its origins in the effort to increase economic and social cohesion. This is reflected in Article 130a of the Treaty of Rome amended by the Single Act, which for the first time explicitly incorporated the aim of economic and social cohesion, defined as promoting “the harmonious development of the Community and a reduction in disparities between the various regions and the backwardness of the least-favoured regions”. In the Treaty agreed by the European Council in Maastricht in December 1991 this aim was further strengthened, cohesion becoming one of the central “pillars” of the new European Union.
Ronnie Hall
6. Cohesion, real incomes and employment opportunities
Abstract
When the benefits of European integration are considered, the main emphasis is generally placed on the aggregate effects. However, it is also important that the unification process serves to narrow disparities in real income and employment opportunities between different parts of the Community, and indeed between different social groups.
John Morley, Terry Ward

Aspects of the catching-up process

Frontmatter
7. Catching up with the rest: the Irish experience
Abstract
“atching up” in the EC context means the living standards of poorer countries approaching those of richer ones, i.e. real convergence, as distinct from nominal convergence in inflation, interest rates and budget balances. The most commonly-used measure of living standards in such comparisons is average GDP per capita. In some circumstances, however, this indicator may be seriously misleading.
Kieran A. Kennedy
8. Spain in the EC: monetary stability versus economic growth?
Abstract
The question in the title of this chapter is of great importance, for two reasons. First, the Spanish economy experienced intense growth in the 1980s, but did so following a huge expansion in internal demand, which only heightened the conflict between stability and growth. This problem must now be resolved if Spaniards are to look forward to a more promising future. Second, the Spanish government recently presented its convergence programme for the next four years. This plan outlined a strategy with the dual objective of meeting the commitments of Maastricht, which aim primarily at stability, and maintaining the domestic economic expansion, which will make it possible to reduce the level-of-development gap of about 20% between Spain and the European Community average.
José Folgado Blanco
9. Greece and European Monetary Union: a challenge or a helping hand?
Abstract
By almost all macroeconomic accounts, Greece is the odd man out in the process of satisfying the criteria set out by the Maastricht Treaty as the preparation for Economic and Monetary Union. The Greek public debt is approaching 100% of GDP, and shows no sign of coming down as long as the current fiscal policies are applied. Owing to high interest payments, the budget deficit stands at 14% of GDP even after the primary deficit has been brought down to 1%. Inflation persists at 15% despite the prolonged recession in the Greek economy. The exchange rate is depreciated by 10–12% annually against the Ecu currencies, but this is still not enough to correct the accumulated loss of competitiveness caused by inflation differentials with Greece’s trading rivals. After the escudo joined the Exchange-Rate Mechanism in March 1992, the drachma was further isolated as the only currency left outside the band.
Nicos M. Christodoulakis

The impact of Community policies

Frontmatter
10. Fiscal federalism: a survey of the literature
Abstract
There seems to be wide agreement among economists that macroeconomic stabilisation should be left to the central government — whether this be of a state or a supranational federation — while distribution and allocation functions may be exercised at lower levels. The strongest case for decentralisation is made for the allocation function. If there are various forms of public goods which can only be consumed jointly and provided uniformly, then these goods should be supplied at the level at which consumer preferences are relatively homogeneous. This is the essence of Oates’ (1972) decentralisation theorem. Where regional preferences differ, the decentralised provision of public goods brings efficiency gains. Decentralisation would also make it possible to apply the benefit-pricing rule for public services, which is difficult to implement at the highest levels since regional tax discrimination is usually prohibited by federal constitutions. Although the efficient provision of regional public goods could eventually be effected at the central level, this would normally imply information requirements that are difficult to meet, and it would entail costs deriving from uncertainties (Tresch 1981).
P. Bernd Spahn
11. The regional-stabilisation properties of fiscal arrangements
Abstract
The steps leading to the signature of the Treaty on European Union in Maastricht have refuelled the debate about whether a single European currency would need to be accompanied by a large budget at Community level, an equalisation scheme, a special “shock-absorbing” mechanism or a combination of these devices. One of the main arguments in favour of such a parallelism in the process of unification is that without a sizeable EC budget, monetary union would lack the automatic stabilisers needed to compensate states for the loss of the exchange rate as an adjustment instrument (a view taken by, for instance, Krugman, 1992 and Feldstein, 1992). As developed in Goodhart and Smith (1992), the case for regional stabilisation rests on the Keynesian assumption of market imperfections (especially price/wage rigidities) which prevent instantaneous market clearing. This is indeed a basic assumption in all the literature dealing with stabilisation properties of federal budgetary systems. It is therefore retained hereafter without further discussion.
Alexander Italianer, Jean Pisani-Ferry
12. The implications of cohesion policy for the Community’s budget
Abstract
In 1980 I wrote an internal working paper for the Commission with the title “The pre-federal integration phase in the MacDougall report: a possible scenario for 1985?” In it I focused on the budgetary expenditure necessary to promote economic efficiency and equity in the process of deepened European integration. I left aside external aid and agricultural expenditure and will do the same in this chapter.
Horst Reichenbach
13. The regional impact of Community policies
Abstract
Social cohesion, that is the harmonisation of working and living conditions, has been a firmly-rooted aim of the European Community since the passing of the Single European Act. Clearly this represents an ambitious target if one bears in mind the stark differences in economic performance of the member states and their various regions. In the poorest regions economic output per head of population amounts to only one-ninth of that in the richest. Economic weaknesses and unfavourable local conditions often go hand in hand, so that geographical remoteness, a poor communications network, inadequate infrastructure and shortages of skills significantly hinder the catching-up process, even if the difference in labour costs offers incentives to move production away from the central regions of the EC.
Bernhard Seidel
14. The efficiency of the Structural Funds
Abstract
The aim of this chapter is to discover whether it is possible to reach an objective assessment of the efficiency of the Structural Funds, as administered by the Commission since 1989.
Philippe Goybet, Moreno Bertoldi
15. The role of the European Investment Bank
Abstract
The European Investment Bank contributes to the promotion of Community structural policies — in the first place cohesion policy, but also environment, transport, energy and industry policies. The financing which the EIB provides is long-term, generally between 8 and 12 years for industrial and service ventures and up to 20 years or more for infrastructure. Terms are flexible and can be tailored to borrowers’ needs; rates can be fixed, with or without a revision date, or variable; grace periods on capital repayments can be modulated; and there is a range of alternatives as to the choice of currency.
Eugenio Greppi
Backmatter
Metadaten
Titel
Improving Economic and Social Cohesion in the European Community
herausgegeben von
Jørgen Mortensen
Copyright-Jahr
1994
Verlag
Palgrave Macmillan UK
Electronic ISBN
978-1-349-23438-7
Print ISBN
978-1-349-23440-0
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-23438-7