Social and economic polarization in the EU

Regional disparities within the European Union have been slowly reduced by advancing integration policies, but the convergence tendencies have decreased in intensity with the onset of the economic crisis. Moreover, the (unequal and unconvincing) convergence between Member States has not translated directly into the convergence of development regions at subnational level. The impact of European funds or of the mix of the public policies at the level of each state are often discussed in relation to increasing social and economic polarization and income inequality among various European states and various categories of citizens within a European state. [read more]

The most prominent indicators of this subfield highlight some of the most serious problems currently faced by Member States: inequality of income and disparities in the economic development of the regions. In the context of an increase in income inequalities and the rise of poverty levels because of austerity measures, various European states have implemented a series of measures that focus on the minimum wage.

Statistics show that in 2014 in the EU the income of the population with the highest income (representing 20% of EU population) was 5.2 times higher than the income of the population with the lowest income (representing 20% of EU population). This ratio varied significantly among EU Member States, from 3.5 in the Czech Republic, to over 6.0% in Lithuania, Portugal, Latvia, Greece, Estonia, Spain and Bulgaria, reaching its highest in Romania, at 7.2. We believe that the way the European Union will approach the specificities of the countries in its periphery will represent a decisive indicator for the viability and coherence of the European development model. That is the reason why the indicators that express inequalities and the real dimension of economic dependency are essential for the aggregator.