Einfluss der europäischen Regionalpolitik auf die deutsche Regionalförderung

"This paper discusses the impact of European Regional Policy on German Regional State Aid from past until today and considers differences and similarities in the development of European and National Regional State Aid. It is shown how rules and guidelines were adapted to the enlargement of the European Union and the increasing regional disparities and how the European Commission has restricted the scope of national regional policy for State Aid step by step. At the beginning Member States were able to determine the scope of their assisted areas but in the early 1980s the European Commission restricted this by introducing thresholds for claiming regions as national assisted areas. Since 1988 the European Union average of gross domestic product per inhabitant determined the scope of the assisted areas. At the end of the 1990s the European Commission allowed more flexibility for claiming assisted areas by the Member States but restricted the population coverage eligible for regional State Aid by establishing national population ceilings. After the enlargement of the European Union in 2004 the gross domestic product per inhabitant and the scope of national population ceilings declined, especially for older Member States. This paper shows the effects of the enlargement of the European Union and the changing requirements for assisted areas and how they influenced the scope of German National Regional State Aid. As a result many conflicts between Germany and the European Commission occurred which are also described in this article. Finally, the changes for the next period 2014-2020 will be discussed." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))