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As European countries pursue a common effort towards establishing a European Union, various isolated -and consequently disadvantaged -regions are likely to face increasing competitive pressures due to their peripheral location. To assist such areas, regional, national and supranational bodies put much effort into developing transport and communication networks and linkages in order to ensure that such less favoured areas are better integrated in the broader European social and economic development process. This book addresses the issue of lagging development in various -mainly central and southern - European regions which are in a disadvantageous position as a result of their isolated 10cation.úúThe persisting problems of social and economic development in several European Union areas (e.g. islands, mountains, border areas) has turned the attention of policy-makers to "the critical importance of transport and (tele)communication linkages. The purpose of the book is to bring into perspective the role of transport and communications in regional policy for peripheral areas. This subject is currently of high priority, since the European Union through the Structural Funds interventions (i.e. the Community Support Frameworks) and the new Cohesion Fund relies heavily on transport and communication infrastructure investments to assist areas which are at a disadvantage due to their peripheral location and isolation. Furthermore, as the Union considers enlargement, some of these issues might be of wide European interest.

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A Isolation and Peripherally: The Role of Networks, Borders and Barriers.- 1 Borders and Barriers in the New Europe: Impediments and Potentials of New Network Configurations.- 2 Some Notes on Intereonnectivity in Transport Networks.- 3 Accessibility and Peripheral Regions.- 4 Innovative Growth and Peripherally in the New European Territory.- 5 Barriers in Network Performance in Border Areas.- 6 How to Overcome Barriers and Border Effects: Theoretical Elements.- 7 International Migration in Europe: Overcoming Isolation and Distance Friction.- 8 Barriers and Bridges in Technology Transfer: Perspectives for Border Regions.- B Empirical Studies on Information and Transport Networks in Europe.- 9 Access to Telecommunication Networks: Regional Variations in Consumption Network Externalities.- 10 Connectivity and Congestion on European Road Corridors.- 11 Bottlenecks in Trans Alpine Freight Transport: A Multicriteria Analysis on Future Brenner Corridor Alternatives.- 12 Trade Effects of the Emerging Market Economies A Study of the Transport Potential of the Rhine-Main-Danube Waterway.- 13 Prospects for the Conventional Passenger/Car Ferry in the Aegean.- 14 Connectivity and Isolation in Transport Networks: A Policy Scenario Experiment for the Greek Island Economy.- 15 Transport Networks and Insular Isolation: Measuring Spatial Inequality.- 16 Overcoming Isolation and the Role of Transport: the Case of the Aegean Islands.- Contributors.

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Peter Nijkamp is Professor in Regional and Urban Economics and in Economic Geography at the VU University, Amsterdam. His main research interests cover quantitative plan evaluation, regional and urban modelling, multicriteria analysis, transport systems analysis, mathematical systems modelling, technological innovation, entrepreneurship, environmental and resource management, and sustainable development. In the past years he has focussed his research in particular on new quantitative methods for policy analysis, as well as on spatial-behavioural analysis of economic agents. He has a broad expertise in the area of public policy, services planning, infrastructure management and environmental protection. In all these fields he has published many books and numerous articles.
In 1996, he was awarded the most prestigious scientific prize in the Netherlands, the Spinoza award.

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