Economic and Social Cohesion

This cohesion report records the progress made towards achieving economic and social cohesion and aims to answer four major questions: have economic and social disparities between Member States, regions and social groups narrowed over time, leading to an improvement in the overall "harmonious development" of the Union?; what has been the role and the achievements of Member States' policies in this respect?; how have the union's non-structural policies responded to the Treaty obligation to take account of cohesion objectives?; what has been the effect of the Union's structural policies?.

With these questions, the Report attempts to draw out the implications for policy at both the Member State and the Union levels.