DEVELOPMENT SCENARIOS AND POLICY GUIDELINES FOR THE LAGGING REGIONS IN THE 1990S

The least favoured EC regions will benefit less from the creation of the Single European Market, due to their weaker economic structure, and they will suffer directly from some of the harmonization regulations and the consequences of moving rapidly towards Economic and Monetary Union. They will be forced to give up some of the traditional assistance tools, and their advantage in unit labour costs will vanish rapidly. A renewed effort in terms of regional policy interventions, based on new principles and philosophies rather than on new tools, is required. Ideas include integration of different policy instruments and their spatial concentrations, the enhancement of local synergies, network co-operation among firms and interregional co-operation.