The European Union is a community of countries at different levels of development and facing many different challenges. Many of these challenges are common to all EU countries. Thanks to the European Funds, the competitiveness of Member States' economies is strengthened, unemployment is combated, and measures are implemented to help develop poorer regions.
The European Union, as an international organization, has its own budget, which finances activities aimed at solving common problems. With a single budget, meeting the challenges is cheaper and more effective than if each Member State were to face them alone. In this way, for over 40 years the Union has been implementing an active regional development policy, also known as cohesion policy or structural policy.
