• International Area Studies Review
• /
• v.15 no.2
• /
• pp.351-381
• /
• 2011

When EU was formed in the late 1950s, the income gap or economic development between member nations was similar so that the interest in execution of regional policies at the level of union was relatively small, with just Italy showing some interest relatively. In 1975, however, ERDF was founded, and nations such as Spain or Portugal that were falling behind in economic development compared to existing member nations joined EU, and the regional policy of the union gradually gained attention. Accordingly, EU gradually increased the budget size for regional policies so that through 1980s and 1990s, the budget size grew over 4 times. In 2004 and 2007, 12 Central-Eastern European nations with great gaps in income level with existing member countries joined EU all at once, so that the resolution of regional inequality among member nations arose as an important assignment in the development of the community. Accordingly, EU has modified the overall goals and basis of regional policies to deal with this matter. From such perspectives, this report examined the development process of regional policies executed by EU for the last 50 years. In the conclusion parts, the issues that appeared in the process of executing EU's regional policies were also examined at the same time.