This paper aims at comparing the scientific literature and key EU policy documents on the impact of services of general interest on regional development. The study proposes to answer two questions: (1) how do the scientific literature and EU policy documents differ in terms of which services of general interest are seen to have an impact on regional development and (2) why do they identify different services of general interest as important for regional development? The method used is qualitative discourse analysis.

The results indicate that services of general interest have a rather different assumed impact on regional development in the scientific literature and in the key EU policy documents. Eight out of the fourteen services of general interest analysed in this study are either not mentioned at all or are only indirectly touched upon in the studied EU policy documents. The EU policy documents consider the drivers for regional development to be transport, ICT and telecommunications, electricity, education and health.