Transcript is a european regional approach fruitfull

IS A EUROPEAN REGIONAL
APPROACH FRUITFULL WHEN IT
COMES TO DEVELOPING ECONOMY
AND EMPLOYMENT?
4th Coffee of the Regions
Brussels 26-2-2015
Louis Delcart
Head of Department
EIR
Summary
• Regional approach: sceptics and believers
• Stick to regional policies?
• Question tags on European regional
development policies
• Role of regional authorities
• Collaboration with civil society
Skepticism about the regional
approach
• European regions will be overwhelmed by
global forces
– regions that try to develop employment on their
own, even with European aid, are wasting time
and energy
• Development policy related issues
Scepticism on regional approach:
Development policy related issues
• since development strategies always have a
medium to long-term effect, it may still be too
early to accurately assess the impact of the
reform of the Structural Funds
• despite the increase in the volume of
development funds, the funds available are
still too scarce to have any significant impact
on growth rates
Key words for the successful areas
• flexibility and adaptability
• regions have to be able to adapt constantly to
new challenges and new market demands
• businesses within the region have to be
convinced that
– a strategy is needed and that
– they have to adapt their activities towards that
strategy
Camp of the believers
• business support is positively associated with higher
employment growth in industries that are initially
smaller then in those with higher growth opportunities
– The results suggest that direct support to businesses by
the European Cohesion Policy contributes to the growth
process of employment in different industries
• a serious step forward
– most recent changes in the European Fund allocation
policy
– attribution of funds based upon real needs and upon
previously stated conditions, whereas before investments
were evaluated after the investment was already made
Stick to regional policies?
• Not all countries are convinced about the
enactment of regional policies for the
development of economy and employment
• setting up regions as a larger entity above
arrondissements or provinces, because they
have a better perspective of the local situation
and they can also more efficiently manage
larger volumes of attributed money
Question tag on European policy?
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•
Europe imposes investment targets based upon an overall strategy
ERDF investment programme concentrates on four key themes:
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1)innovation and research,
2) information and communication technologies (ICT);
3)support for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs); and
4)promoting a low-carbon economy
The types of investment therefore can be:
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in SMEs to create and safeguard sustainable jobs,
in all types of enterprise in the fields of innovation and research,
the low-carbon economy, as well as
ICT where SMEs are involved,
in infrastructure providing basic services in energy, environment,
transport, and ICT, but also in social, health and educational
infrastructure, and
– in development of indogenous potential
Question tag on European policy? 2
• if everybody is investing in the same future,
there is so much competition inside Europe,
that nobody is able to derive any benefit from
it.
• In other words, circumstances are so
different, that one cannot describe the
strategy for a continent in 4 key sentences.
Regional development is also …
• The future of Europe in many places is also
– in efficient, healthy and qualitative agricultural
products;
– beautiful, original, qualitative clothing and furniture;
– artistic features such as design; wood carving and
metal working products and special fabrics;
– preservation, promotion and accessibility to our vast
historic and cultural heritage;
– recycling of 90% of our waste as new raw material for
the above mentioned products
– …
Goals of regional development
• Economic development is the sustained, concerted actions of policy
makers and communities that promote the standard of living and
economic health of a specific area. Economic development can also
be referred to as the quantitative and qualitative changes in the
economy. Such actions can involve multiple areas including
development of human capital, critical infrastructure, regional
competitiveness, social inclusion, health, safety, literacy, and other
initiatives. Economic development differs from economic growth.
Whereas economic development is a policy intervention endeavor
with aims of economic and social well-being of people, economic
growth is a phenomenon of market productivity and rise in GDP.
Consequently, as economist Amartya Sen points out, "economic
growth is one aspect of the process of economic
development.“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economic_development
• Sen, A. (1983). Development: Which Way Now? Economic Journal,
Vol. 93 Issue 372. pp. 745–762
Goals for common people
• These are goals for common people, with common
ideas and skills and with the ambition to offer a healthy
prosperous life to their family and maybe even some
other people in their neighbourhood.
• That is also a regional approach to economic and
employment development.
• And on some occasions, some of those local
entrepreneurs have the potential to outgrow their
regional context.
– They have to be fostered by regional authorities in order to
give them the necessary support to spread their wings
Regional approach
• Input from the regions is required in the
overall strategy development and policy
making
• Not every region or province has had a
glorious past with successful entrepreneurs
and creative universities
• Sometimes things have to be created from
scratch.
Role of regional authorities
1. Regional authorities have to create the
circumstances and sometimes to interfere in an
overall capitalistic scheme
2. Regional authorities have to give the floor to
civil society and involve them in common
debates is mostly the role of an active regional
authority
3. Regional authorities have to persuade the key
players on the field to collaborate around a
regional strategic plan
Create the circumstances and
sometimes interfere
• Assisting SMEs to redevelop shopping streets in a
city means also intervening in the burden of
rental schemes for shops.
• Managing industrial zonings at cost price but with
excellent services.
• Lowering taxes required from SMEs.
• Jointly promoting the offer from SMEs.
• Stimulating innovation and (inter)nationalisation
• …
Give the floor to civil society
• A dynamic social and political environment disposes of a civil society. That civil
society can be promoted with governmental input, but also through
memberships and/or sponsoring.
• That civil society promotes a better, healthier and happier society as a whole:
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Chambers of commerce,
labour organisations,
cultural organisations,
health care organisations,
universities and technical university colleges play an important role in a regional
civil society.
• The civil society is closely involved to what lives in the community in general.
– They recognise (lack of) expertise,
– they recognise institutional, social and economic needs.
• Each of them promotes of course the needs of the group they represent.
• Looking for consensus and making choices for coping with the most urgent
needs in a region, that is the art of negotiation and compromise.
Regional strategic plan
• Regional bodies cannot always put the necessary
funds on the table in order to solve everybody’s
problems.
• They can persuade the key players on the field to
collaborate around a regional strategic plan.
• They can persuade particular company managers to
take part in a regional development program.
– Public recognition is therefore one of the most powerful
arguments they dispose of.
• Transparent and honest taxation systems are also part
of the tools enabling them to obtain the right results:
employment, social cohesion and progress.
Role of civil society in less developed
areas of Europe
• Have to work hard to develop a regional policy to
survive
• Development of factories and companies in
these areas have to see light mostly from own
initiatives
• Need for a strong civil society especially in those
areas
– The civil society recognises talent,
– The civil society monitors development
– The civil society promotes solidarity with the local
population