Behind the Myth of European Union
Prospects for Cohesion

Economic integration within the European community has come ever closer, but a reduction in social disparities are as far away as ever. The current neo-liberal policies favour the relatively wealthy regions at the expense of less favoured regions.

The book is divided into three parts, dealing with:
* the macroeconomic environment : assessing the merits and weaknesses of market-led policies
* the social dimension: arguing for an extension and deepening of European social policy
* regional queations: concluding that the pattern is for an increasing concentration of economic power in the core regions and only partial revitalization in less favoured regions. The book concludes by making a case for putting cohesion measures at the centre of economic policy, rather than making them an adjunct to attempts to make Europe more 'competitive'. In doing so it defends a growth philosophy based on expansionist macroeconomic policies, active industrial intervention, protection of workers rights and active supply-side growth measure in the regions. Without such measures the pursuit of cohesion will remain an elusive goal.