Between 2000 and 2006, Cohesion Policy not only spent one third of the EU budget, it was also a policy that was challenged by history and helped to change history. The enlargement of the EU by 10 new Member States in 2004 deepened the economic and social disparities in a manner never seen before. The policy had to respond to this challenge without forgetting those that continued to exist in the ‘old’ EU-15.