SPATIAL PATTERNS OF DEVELOPMENT IN THE EUROPEAN UNION: A REVIEW

Dimitrios Tsiotas () and Serafeim Polyzos
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Dimitrios Tsiotas: Department of Regional and Economic Development, School of Applied Economics and Social Sciences, Agricultural University of Athens, Amfissa, Phocis, Greece
Serafeim Polyzos: Department of Planning and Regional Development, University of Thessaly, Volos, Greece

Theoretical and Empirical Researches in Urban Management, 2025, vol. 20, issue 2, 5-31

Abstract: Development and cohesion in the European Union are initiated by an awareness and understanding of geographical space and its various interactions. In the case of the European Union (EU), which is a globally unique confederation with the constitutional objective of economic, social, and territorial cohesion, a reading of the European geographical space highlights four basic patterns of spatial development: the so-called Blue Banana, and the Mediterranean, Atlantic, and Eastern Arc. Studying these patterns highlights different dimensions that economic, social, and territorial inequalities acquire in the EU geographical space. In addition to defining the regional problem within the geographical and functional boundaries of the EU, these variations highlight aspects of the challenges that the Union is facing towards the desired multidimensional cohesion and convergence of spatial disparities. In this context, through a literature review and by using socioeconomic indicators, this paper studies the specific characteristics of the main patterns of spatial development that have emerged in the EU so far and discusses the directions that the requirement to reconstruct the European space in this unequal map may acquire.

Keywords: spatial inequalities; geographical patterns of economic growth; economic indicators; cohesion. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:rom:terumm:v:20:y:2025:i:2:p:5-31

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