EU regionalism

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EU regionalism

• Practice, Implementation, Tools and Development
  Possibilities of EU Regional Policy
• Anita Pelle
• University of Szeged
• Faculty of Economics and Business Administration

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Aims of Regional Policy

• Basic aim
• to decrease the economic disparities among the
  regions of the EU, integration of regions in a
  backlog
• Indirect aim
• harmonic, balanced, sustainable economic
  development together with the strngthening of
  social and economic cohesion

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Need for and importance of Regional Policy (I)

• Enlargements resulting in the inscrease of
  disparities between regions
• among founding Member States southern parts of
  Italy
• 1973 Ireland, parts of Great Britain
• 1981 Greece
• 1986 Portugal, Spain
• 1995 rarely populated northern territoties of
  Sweden and Finland

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Need for and importance of Regional Policy (II)

• The peripherical areas could gain less from the
  Common Market that the central areas
• Increasing economic disparities started to lead
  to social tensions
• Biggest reform took place in 1998, since then it
  is the second most important of EU policies
  reagrding financial support

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The most important tool for regional support at
EU level

• EU regional support is realised through the
  Structural Funds. The Structural Funds are
• European Regional Development Fund (ERDF)
• European Agricultural Guidance and Guarantee
  Fund, Orientation Section (EAGGF)
• European Social Fund (ESF)
• Financial Instrument for Fisheries Guidance
  (FIFG)
• Tool for strengthening economic and social
  cohesion
• Cohesion Fund

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ERDF

• Its aim is to strengthen economic cohesion
• Eligible activities
• infrastructural interventions
• services to create a favorable economic
  environment
• financing of enterprises, economic
  competitiviness of small and medium sized
  enterprises
• research and development
• renewable energies
• innovation, information society for regional
  development

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EAGGF Orientation Section

• Its aim is to develop rural areas, to improve the
  life standards of rural population, to impede
  their migration
• Eligible activities
• rural development
• local industries
• rural tourism
• agro-environmental protection
• local energy resources
• alternative possibilities for rural employment

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ESF

• Its aim is to strengthen social cohesion and to
  improve the level of employment
• Eligible activities
• education and training for higher level of
  employment
• programmes to decrease unemployment among young
  and female population
• integration of disabled social groups into the
  labor market
• re-integration to the labor market

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Principles of EU Regional Policy

• Programming - financing of projects within the
  framework of multi-annual programmes
• Partnership - cooperation of EU, national and
  local level actors in the realisation of projects
• Additionality - involvement of national, local
  and private resources in financing
• Concentration - concentration of resources along
  priorities instead of financing many small and
  fragmented projects
• Subsidiarity - handling problems at the lowest
  possible level

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Territorial statistical units

• The EU uses the NUTS-system to categorise
  territorial units
• Its levels are
• NUTS-I national
• NUTS-II regional
• NUTS-III county
• NUTS-IV microregional
• NUTS-V local (municipality)

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Objectives of EU Regional Policy for the period
2000-2006

• Objective 1. integration of regions in a backlog
• Objective 2. support to territories struggling
  with structural difficulties
• Objective 3. education and training to achieve a
  higher level of employment

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Objective 1.

• NUTS-II level regions where the GDP per capita is
  less than 75 of EU average
• lowly populated areas (population density is less
  that 8 persons per sqkm) also belong here
• covers about one fourth of the EU population
• two thirds of EU structural support is directed
  to these territories
• mainly geographical peripheries and the area of
  former German Democratic Republic

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Objective 2.

• NUTS-III level territories
• industrial and agriculture structural
  interventions are also covered

Objective 3.

• Horizontal objective
• is realised at national (NUTS-I) level

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Community Initiatives

• Programmes financed by the Structural Funds and
  based on community initiatives are
• INTERREG - to promote cross-border cooperation
• URBAN - to handle problems induced by
  urbanisation
• LEADER - rural development programmes
• EQUAL - equality in the labor market

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Cohesion Fund

• Those countries are covered where the GDP per
  capita is less than 90 of the EU average
• At present Ireland, Portugal, Spain and Greece
  are the eligible Member States
• With the central eastern enlargement, new Member
  States will also be eligible
• Elilgible activities infrastructural investments
  in the fields of environmental protection and
  transport
• Financing of single, major projects

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Development possibilities of Regional Policy

• The central eastern enlargement will considerably
  decrease the EU average GDP per capita so it
  rearranges interests
• Structural expenses in the common budget cannot
  be increased considerably
• New emphasis is put on general programmes, on
  the improvement of overall economic environment
  and on strengthening the capital attracting
  capacities of the regions
• Social cohesion remains a basic priority

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Thank you for your attention!