Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
regionally differentiated. EU aid is mostly given through the so-called Structural
Funds, which were reformed in 1988 and provide the main form of aid outside
agricultural support. The main reform was the creation of Objective 1, which
uses 70 per cent of the funds, and is intended for Regions of Lagging
development. Almost all of Spain outside the northeast comes into this category.
In addition, Catalonia and the Basque Country qualify for the second category,
Objective 2, for Regions in Industrial Decline. Rural areas throughout Spain
have funds under Objective 5b, promoting Rural Diversification.
Overall, the message given by Spanish regional development is that the
country has produced only a weak regional policy. On the other hand, there has
been a massive set of interregional forces for change in the latter half of the
twentieth century. Some of these forces are exogenous, like tourist demand and
inward investment, partly outside the control of domestic governments, and have
produced a greater concentration of wealth and production in some regions. The
ability of the country to influence waves of development affecting this or that
region is limited because of the exogenous character of change. The balancing
that has occurred in recent decades may be ascribed more to “natural
movements”, the migration of several million people from Andalucia to the
north, and to some extent the movement of capital into the south to exploit new
resources such as the climate. Both because of this exogenous nature, and
because of the weak finances of the state in Spain, as can probably be said for the
peripheral countries of southern and eastern Europe generally, planning regional
development is a less fruitful task than in older developed countries.
