Transcript - European Commission

EU Regional Policy: an overview
DG Regional Policy
European Commission
1
Outline of today’s presentation
• What is it EU regional policy?
• Why do we bother with a regional policy?
• How much does it cost?
• What do we spend the money on?
• Is it worth it?
2
What is EU Regional Policy?
• Regional policy is the vehicle for delivering regional aid
• Biggest slice of the EU budget which helps:
poorer regions catch up
areas undergoing economic change to restructure
with the realisation of most other Community
policies
3
EU Budget 2007-2013
COMMITMENT APPROPRIATIONS
BY HEADING
In billion of EUR,
at 2004 prices
1a. Competitiveness for growth and employment (research, innovation,
competitiveness)
In %
72.1
8,4%
307.6
35,7%
371.2
43,1%
293.1
34,0%
3. Citizenship, freedom, security and justice
(internal policies; public health, asylum, immigration)
10.3
1,2%
4. The EU as a global partner (humanitarian and development aid)
50.0
5,8%
5. Total administrative expenditure
50.3
5,8%
0.8
0,1%
1b. Cohesion for growth and employment (regional policy)
2. Preservation and management of natural resources
(Common Agricultural Policy, rural development, environment)
of which market-related expenditure (CAP)
6. Compensations Bulgaria and Romania (after accession expected in
2007)
Total commitments
862.4
In % of EU-27 GNI
1.045%
100
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What is its purpose?
• The EU is one of the world’s most prosperous economic
zones
• But huge disparities exist among the 271 EU regions –
weakens the EU’s dynamism
• Hence the political goal of reducing the gaps in
development
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How does it do this?
Regional policy interventions to reduce disparities and promote
economic convergence are spread through 3 funds:
• ERDF: European Regional Development Fund
• ESF: European Social Fund
and…
• Cohesion Fund (applies to MS with <90% average GNI
and covers the new member states as well as Greece
and Portugal. Spain is eligible on a transitional basis)
….financing thousands of project across Europe each year
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Why do we bother?
 It is in the treaty
“to promote economic and social
cohesion by reducing disparities
between the regions”
Leaving disparities in
place is not an option
that would wreck two of the
policies on which Europe’s
growth has been based: the
single market and the European
Monetary Union (EMU)
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Differences in
development in the EU-27
GDP per head as a % of the
community average
<50
50 - 75
75 - 90
90 - 100
100 - 125
 125
8
EU 27 Member States GDP per capita in PPS in 2006
Source: Eurostat structural indicators
EU 27= 100
9
Disparities across the European Union
Hi
Lo
Ratio
GDP per cap
(% EU27
average)
Luxembourg
251%
Bulgaria
33%
7.6*
Population
Germany
82.5 million
Malta
404,000
204
*In US, this difference is only 2.5 and Japan 2
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How much does it cost?
One third of the EU budget 2007-2013
€347 billion over 7 years
11
What does the EU citizen get for this?
The three funds target:
• ERDF (€201 billion): regional development, economic
decline in industrial or rural areas, competitiveness and
co-operation
• (ESF) (€76 billion): employment, social inclusion and
tackling discrimination
• Cohesion Fund (€70 billion): environment and transport
with overarching aim of “boosting growth and employment”
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What do we spend the money on?
European Regional Development Fund
and Cohesion Fund (€271 billion)
European Social Fund (€76 billion)
Employment
Environment
Transport
Human capital
Research/Innovation
Information society
Social infrastructure
Energy
Tourism
Culture
Institutional capacity
Adaptability of workers and firms
Social inclusion
Capacity building
Technical assistance
13
Does this fit with other EU priorities?
• Boosting growth and employment central to the
wider EU agenda – “Lisbon Strategy”
• Lisbon is the EU’s blueprint for competiveness and
sustainable growth
• Prioritises:
 increasing levels of innovation to help businesses
move up the value chain
 Bringing more of Europe’s population into employment
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Boosting growth and jobs: is regional policy
putting this into practice?
• Concentration of the effort on competitiveness
(21st century activities)
 Member States must ‘earmark’ resources on such
strategic investments (€230 billion now targeted on
Lisbon priorities)
• Concentration of resources on least prosperous
 Regions with GDP per head below 75% of EU average: over
¼ of population
 Member States with GDP per head below 90% of average: 13
MS with 25% of population
15
Who gets what?
• Convergence 81.9% (regions lagging behind the most)
• Competitiveness 15.7%
• Territorial co-operation 2.4%
• Total budget €347bn, which will unlock up to €700bn
A method based on what works: Programming, Partnership
and Decentralised Management
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Geographical Eligibility
for Structural Funds
Support 2007-2013
Convergence objective
(Regions < 75% in
EU 25)
Convergence objective
statistically affected regions
Objective 'Regional
Competitiveness and
Employment'
Phasing-in regions,
"naturally" above 75%
Objective 'Regional
Competitiveness and
Employment'
Index EU 25 =
100
Source: Eurostat
17
Who can apply for funds?
•
Huge range of potential recipients:
 Businesses including SMEs
 Public bodies
 Associations
 Voluntary groups
•
All projects considered if meet selection criteria of
managing authority of relevant programme
•
Compulsory publication of beneficiary lists
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Is it worth it?
•
Evidence suggests positive contribution to
growth, national convergence and reduction of
interregional disparities
•
Ex-post evaluations demonstrate positive
employment effects
•
Clear benefits in terms of regional governance

Since 2000, investments have created some 600,000 net jobs,
160,000 in new Member States.
Every euro invested led to an average € 0.9 in additional funding
from public and private sources. In more developed regions, this
induced expenditure can go as high as 3 times the initial
investment.

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Some outputs…..
•
•
•
•
•
•
Increasing per capita GDP in Greece, Spain, Ireland and Portugal –
( Greece increased from 74% of the EU average to 88% between
1995 and 2005)
Helping to reduce income disparities between richest and poorest
by roughly a sixth (between 2000 and 2005) through sustained high
growth
By 2015, it is estimated that regional policy will have generated an
additional 440,000 jobs in Poland, as well as contributing an extra
6% to GDP and 21% to investment
Over 44,000 km of road were built or reconstructed in the period
2000-2006. The equivalent figure for rail was nearly 12,000 km
Supporting more than 250,000 small businesses in the UK
Over 25,000 RTD co-operation projects were supported in the
period 2000-2006
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What is the added value?
•
•
•
•
•
Leverage effect of additional resources
Multi-annual planning, partnership, monitoring and
evaluation
Support for other EU objectives such as internal market,
sustainable development
Ring-fencing public resources
Interregional cooperation and sharing of best practice
But
•
Complexity of management and control structures
•
Reality on ground can be very variable
•
Unclear in some MS if effects are consistent or attributable
to policy
•
Effectiveness of monitoring and evaluation undermined by
poor data
21
Source: Cohesion Report, Bachtler and Gorzelak
A success story? Tram system in Athens
22
Regional incubation centre in Ireland
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The Guggenheim effect in Bilbao
24
Innovation centre in Czech Republic
25
Motorway near San Sebastian
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Centre for renewable energies in Burgenland
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Five things to remember
1. It has successfully reduced the gaps between regions in Europe
and made a major contribution to prosperity and democratic
stability.
2. It has improved management and governance in the regions by
decentralising management and devolving responsibility: the
Commission does not select projects!
3. It is, with research, the EU’s biggest budget heading;
4. It works by investing in infrastructure, training, innovation and
research. No hand outs.
5. Its success is recognised by all candidate countries and by many
others (China, S. Africa, Russia, Brazil…)
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For more information…
http://ec.europa.eu/regional_policy
THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION!
Any questions?
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