The principal problems membership of the EU has brought to the regions of Britain.

... This essay then attempts to highlight some of the principal problems membership of the EU has brought to the regions of Britain and the impact Community policies designed to lessen these problems have had. It also endeavours to show how membership of the EU has affected traditional national government policies implemented to reduce regional disparities. Probably the most significant impact membership of the European Union has had on regional development in the UK is regards a deepening of the north-south divide. Although only politically recognised in the 1980s this divide has a history that stretches back to the original location of major manufacturing activity in the north of the UK. Beginning with the extraction of coal to fuel the industrial revolution, this acted as a catalyst which initiated a process of cumulative causation in northern areas and consequently led to the development of shipbuilding, textile, iron and steel and port-based activities.

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