PLANNING FOR A SUSTAINABLE EUROPE? - TU Berlin

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dissenters of the view that regional policies can help poorer regions catch up with
wealthier ones. Many commentators argue that the economic forces leading to an
increasing divergence between regions are simply too strong for regional policies to
counteract them. According to this view, infrastructure investments in poorer regions
appear as pure income transfers that are unlikely to seriously narrow the productivity gap
between poorer and richer regions. In fact, improved transport connections may even
accelerate out-migration in poor regions and thus widen rather than narrow the gap.
Alternatively, one might argue that these types of transfers negatively affect overall
growth. As Philippe Maystadt (2000b:4), the president of the EIB, recently noted:
“Indeed, [regional spending] may lead to lower overall prosperity if it drains resources
from those wealthy and innovative regions that are the main engines of economic growth.
If this is the case, we face a trade-off between equality and growth.”
An increasing number of scholars concerned about the increasing environmental
burden that our transport systems impose upon us would throw in ecology for good
measure, arguing that it is really a three-way trade off. So in the end, we are once again
faced with the fact that the goal of sustainable development, regional or otherwise, is
always struggling to balance at least three often incompatible dimensions: growth, equity
and the environment.