After years of near 'disrepute' in official circles, industrial policy has made something of a comeback over the last few years and is now very much back on the agenda at national and EU levels (Allen et al., 2006; European Commission, 2004, 2005, 2007a) driven by concerns over globalisation, deindustrialisation, unemployment and perceived poor growth in the EU. Simultaneously, the Fourth Report on Economic and Social Cohesion (European Commission, 2007b) has kicked off the debate over challenges to cohesion, the shape of EU cohesion policy beyond 2013, and how resources should be managed.

This debate will find added momentum with the imminent 'mid-term' review being launched by the Commission. Discussions over the success or not of the Lisbon Agenda, ongoing debates over cluster policies, and recent developments in policy evaluation (e.g. Bachtler & Wren, 2006) have also contributed to a burgeoning academic literature over the last 18 months.

This special issue on 'Industrial and regional policies in an enlarging EU' is especially pertinent given such developments and pulls together a diverse range of contributions to add to these debates and to illustrate connections between them.