Transcript 1. dia
The contribution of regions and local governments to the Lisbon strategy Presentation at the „Open Days – European Week of Regions and Cities” Regional Lisbon Governance Workshop Brussels 13. October 2005 Iván Tosics Metropolitan Research Institute, Budapest ([email protected]) The issue of competitiveness • Definitions of competitiveness range from narrow economic approach to broader, more complex ones. • OECD (2003) offers an example on the latter as follows: “An economy is competitive if its population can enjoy high and rising standards of living and high employment on a sustainable basis. … the level of economic activity should not cause an unsustainable external balance of the economy nor should it compromise the welfare of future generations.” • The broader definitions of competitiveness are usually based on three pillars: economic growth, social cohesion and environmental quality. The well known statistics based on GDP/capita does not adequately measure performances in the sense of such broader definitions. Competitiveness in the US and in Europe • From economic point of view the regions of the USA are the most competitive in the world, but in living conditions many of them are far behind the European metropolitan areas. • Innovative European cities offer, besides buoyant economic activities, also attractive (renewed) urban areas, healthy environment, and social calm, proving that competitiveness in urban areas is more than economic growth and job creation. • The liveability of European urban areas is an important asset, usually not even mentioned in the new EU analyses on competitiveness. • It is clear that under present circumstances economic considerations must get more priority in European development, and the „goal congestion” (setting too many goals to reach) should be avoided. Even so, environmental and social aspects have to remain on the agenda, they have to be considered as integral part of competitiveness. The broader view on competitiveness • The market is unable to coordinate between the three dimensions of competitiveness, this remains a political task, in which governance becomes the key tool. • According to most analysts the Functional Urban Areas around large cities are the most important units regarding competitiveness, as these provide for the economy of scale and this is the level where positive externalities can be achieved and negative externalities can be addressed most efficiently. Thus the National Lisbon Strategies have to call for the preparation of regional strategies. • Economic competitiveness of territorial units has a number of success factors, such as specialisation and sectoral structure, innovation and knowledge, accessibility and connectivity. • The fulfilment of these requirements, in balance with sustainability and social factors, requires clear strategy on the sub-national level of territorial units, which must be based on cooperation between different actors and policy areas. Thus also on the regional and local level governance becomes the most important factor. The Lisbon goals and subsidiarity The key for the fulfilment of the Lisbon goals is the good split of tasks and cooperation between the different levels of the public sector. • The European Union should ensure the general framework for open market competition while defining the minimal environmental and social conditions to be fulfilled • The national level should modify accordingly the regulations and budget expenditures related to the support of economic development and the job market (reducing unemployment and increasing activity rates, increasing educational attainment and workforce skills, promoting knowledge capital development, improving regulatory policies) • The regional level should set up strategy for economic development (controled for sustainability and social inclusion) while being also responsible for the region-wide large infrastructure and regional job market • The local level should decide about the development of adequate economic clusters (within the framework of the regional strategy). Open question fornational debates: what regulatory powers, policies and financial means should the national level transfer to the regional level in order to enhance overall competitiveness? Secondary effects of EU policies The cohesion policy of the EU offers important help for development, especially for regions lagging behind in their development. The overview of EU regulations from a competitiveness angle shows, however, also secondary, negative factors. • The Structural Funds regulation, in order to maximize EU funding, might create incentives for functional urban areas to split into smaller administrative regions. • Many of the EU directives, especially regulations aiming at environmental quality protection, are too inflexible, leading to sub-optimal, even counter-productive results. In order to achieve more sensible solutions, EU requirements should become more flexible (US approach: transferability in the fulfilment of the requirements). BUDAPEST AND THE CENTRAL HUNGARIAN REGION AGGLOMERATION AREA BUDAPEST CENTRAL HUNGARIAN REGION The Lisbon agenda from regional and urban angle Competitiveness in urban areas relates to special problems, such as inactive and ageing population, the existence of the „working poor”, which are in many cases more difficult, as to be solved simply by job creation. • Territorial concentrations of multiple deprivation require complex strategies, such as area based urban renewal both in physical and social sense. Area based programmes offer job opportunities (renovation work, public space upkeeping) and improve the living conditions of people within their present urban surroundings. • Well-balanced sectoral and territorial interventions might be needed to handle the problem of the working poor, offering alternative solutions. Interventions might be needed to help inner city trade as opposed to outer shopping centers (offering low wage jobs), to promote brown-field restructuring as opposed to outer, green-field investments. The optimal contribution from regional and local level to the Lisbon process • There regional and local players are those who know the best, how the special problems of their areas can be handled • Good practices from Budapest: – Establishment of governance-type cooperation to overcome bottlenecks of employment programmes – Initiating area-based complex renewal (with physical and social aims) of run-down urban neighbourhood • Next task to do: work out and implement regionwide strategy for economic development Regional implementation programmes for the national Lisbon strategy • The Hungarian National Lisbon Action Programme has been developed in cooperation of national level institutions and addresses exclusively those factors which belong to national competence. The draft has been sent out for discussion with NGOs, regional and local actors. • The success of the national programme depends on the preparation of regional implementation programmes, ensuring the tailor-made approach to the economic and job-creation goals and also the necessary weight of sustainability and inclusion criteria. • For the Central Hungarian Region (Budapest and Pest county) many special problems have to be addressed: the large differences within the region, the Budapest governance problems (scattered local government system), the problems of deteriorated areas, the challenge of urban sprawl as opposed of deteriorating brown-field areas, the over-centralization of trade as opposed to areas where shops close down. • The priorities of the CHR should be worked out and summarized in a regional strategy document which should become part of the National Lisbon Strategy. Summary: new approach suggested for the preparation of the National Lisbon Strategies • Regional and local involvement is needed in the preparation of the National Lisbon Strategies, as only these actors can ensure the use of local opportunities and the addressing of local needs, and to ensure the necessary weight for environmental and social aspects. • Existing regional and local strategic development plans (competitiveness/sustainability/inclusion plans) should be used as starting points to elaborate the regional dimension of the National Lisbon Programme. • The EU should urge national governments to look at the Lisbon strategy in broader view, including sustainability and social elements, and to involve regional and local bodies through the generation of OMC-plus processes. Thank you for your attention! [email protected]