Les effets spatiaux de l'intégration européenne : l'exemple de la construction automobile

Abstract

The European economic integration was particularly important for the spatial evolution of the car industry, it favoured an economy of scales that have had big impacts on its activity. The first four countries of the Union in the sixties, that is Germany, United Kingdom, France, Italy, have remained very important producers. In these countries, the main factor of the evolution of the car industry was the competitiveness of their native firms and not the level of wage costs. The European economic integration successively favoured the growth of car industry in Belgium, Spain and, nowadays, in some new members such as Poland, the Czech Republic and Hungary. The same evolution took place in Turkey since the establishment, in 1996, of a custom union between this country and the European Union. In the new producer countries, the best formula to attract the car industry was to offer both low wage costs and an strong enough industrial base.