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periphery to adjacent regions took place. In Denmark, the region of S0nderjylland became an
adjacent region to the German core region of Schleswig-Holstein. In Spain, Galicia changed status,
since it borders on the Portuguese core region of Norte. Similarly, in Ireland, the regions of the
Northwest and Donegal now border on the core region of Northern Ireland. In the Netherlands, the two
periphery regions of Groningen and Drenthe border on the German core region of Weser-Ems. In
Austria, integration reduced six periphery regions to one. Specifically, the Austrian regions of
Voralberg, Tirol, Salzburg, and Oberosterreich now border on the core regions of the German
province of Bayern, while Karnten borders on the Italian core region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia. Finally,
in Sweden the periphery region of Sydsverige borders on, and is connected by a bridge to the Danish
core region of Copenhagen. Each of these instances highlights the relationship between the removal of
trade barriers and the reclassification of these regions.
Integration has left the number of core regions, and the number of periphery island-regions,
unchanged. Only the number of adjacent regions has increased. No reclassification of regions occurred
in Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, Greece, Italy, Portugal, Finland, or the UK. The most salient
effect of integration and reclassification has been the transformation of the Austrian regions from
periphery into adjacent regions. Its significance lies in the fact that these regions form part of the EU
geographic core, which consists primarily of contiguous core regions, with adjacent regions serving as
buffer regions between them. The reclassification is significant for subsequent analysis of industry
relocation and the creation of possible new input-output structures in the former periphery regions. It
is reasonable to expect income growth in these newly classified regions.
5.3 The Geographical Distribution of the Regions
The second classification issue pertains to the question of how the regions are distributed in
geographic space. It is of interest to know the location and distribution of the regions not only per
individual member state, but also for the geographic market in its totality. This is relevant since not all
border regions are by definition periphery regions (Brülhart and Torstensson, 1996). In Table 5, the
regions have been categorised according to the criteria of their geographic location.