The necessity of a regional development policy at the nowadays’ European Union level has become vital since the beginning of theenlargement process in 1973 when to those six founding states (Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg and Netherlands) subjoined GreatBritain, Ireland and Denmark. In 1957 when European Economic Community was founded, the EU-6 recorded a similar development level, theregional problems being isolated only in Southern part of Italy. Although on Italy request, the Treaty ascertained the existence of some inequitiesbetween prosperity levels of different regions, article 130 was one of the fundamental motives of creating the European Investment Bank, which maybe considered one of the regional policy instruments. The enlargement process increased regional problems, major disparities regarding the economicdevelopment level being recorded between EU-6 regions and regions of the new member states (North part of England and North part of Ireland).Rural areas from Denmark and Ireland recorded a precarious development compared with similar areas from member states, and mining regions ofGreat Britain were confronted with industrial re-conversion problems. These kinds of problems existed even inside member states so thatcarboniferous regions Lorena (France), Ruhr (Germany), South part of Belgium were strongly affected by the deindustrialisation process. Thesesituations led to the creation of the European Regional Development Fund in 1975 and its main objective at that moment was promoting innovationand infrastructure development in order to adjust the existing discrepancies at the Community level.