Edge radial electric fields were induced in the edge of the TEXTOR tokamak by means of a polarization electrode in order to study their influence on the plasma edge profiles and its confinement. The studies include the generation of H-mode behaviour with either positive or negative polarity. Particle confinement (τp) of deuterium and of impurity ions as well as energy confinement (τE) are investigated. For positive fields which remain below the threshold for the L-H transition, an interesting regime of reduced particle confinement without noticeable energy confinement loss is found. A strong asymmetry in the edge density profiles with respect to the electric field sign is observed at these low polarization voltages. Above the threshold, H-mode behaviour with increased energy confinement and especially particle confinement can be produced with either polarity of the applied electric field. It is, however, found that, whereas the energy confinement in positive H-modes is at least as good as that in negative ones, the ratio τp/τE is about three times lower in the former case