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The authors trace three accounts of the “forgetting” of European territories: the Italian Mezzogiorno, the rural heart of empty Spain and Polish Podlasie. The trajectory of these regions is linked to the question of national unity in each country. In Italy, the fading of the massive policy in favour of the South is explained by the secessionist threat from Lombardy and Veneto. In Spain, the empty part of the country crosses several Autonomies and creates a common issue transcending claims for independence. Podlasie, by virtue of its border situation, embodies a political problem to be solved in a globally homogeneous country. Faced with these “disadvantaged” regions, European cohesion policy is ambiguous: it has a generous redistribution policy while favouring dynamic metropolitan areas.