Investing in Europe’s future

1. Investing in Europe’s future The fifth Cohesion Report presented by Lewis Dijkstra And Elisa Roller

2. Main Points • Situation and trends in EU regions • Competitiveness • Well-being and social inclusion • Environmental Sustainability • Impact of national policies • Impact of other EU policies • Impact of Cohesion Policy • Conclusions: Options for the future

3. Promoting competitiveness and convergence

4. Regional disparities in the world

5. Large economic disparities remain… • Regional disparities are smaller in the US, but bigger in NAFTA • Brazil, Russia, India and China have bigger disparities • Reducing disparities requires investing in • infrastructure • innovation • institutions

6. …but convergence is taking place Less developed countries are growing faster and are likely to recover faster from the crisis Less developed regions in the EU are growing faster, reducing regional economic disparities

7. Areas by degree of urbanisation • Densely populated • Min 50 000 inhab. • Contiguous LAU2 with 500 inhab. per sq km • Intermediate • Min 50 000 inhab. • Contiguous LAU2 with 100 inhab. per sq km • Thinly populated • Not intermediate or densely populated

8. Infrastructure IT Infrastructure: Broadband Access

9. Infrastructure Increasing broadband use

10. Territorial cohesion reinforces: • Access to services • Broadband, health, education, banking… • Environmental sustainability • Climate change, renewable energy, environmental protection • Functional geographies • Metropolitan, remote rural regions… • Territorial Analysis • At NUTS 3, LAU2 and grid level (ESPON, Urban Audit, Urban Atlas …)

11. Infrastructure Road network is incomplete • Dense network in EU-15 little need for additional capacity. Focus should be demand side • In Poland, Romania and Bulgaria, network is almost entirely missing. • Investment in core network important in the East

12. Infrastructure Rail network and daily trains • Intense use in the UK, Italy, Germany and the Netherlands • Less frequent trains in most central and eastern countries • Ireland, Sweden, Finland and Spain have many low frequency lines

13. Innovation More tertiary educated and less early school leavers boosts innovation

14. Innovation Innovation potential & performance • Generators should promote global cutting edge research • Weak diffusers should invest in access to knowledge and technology • Weak absorbers need to improve secondary and tertiary educations (both quality and quantity)

15. Institutions E-government services

16. Competitive European Regions The focus should be • In less developed regions: • Institutions • Quality of basic education • Basic infrastructure and • Health • In highly developed regions: • Business sophistication • Technology and innovation • In all regions • Higher education & training • Labour market efficiency • Equal opportunities • Access to markets

17. More competitiveness can increases employment and GDP

18. Improving well-being and reducing exclusion

19. Objective measures Life expectancy Mortality rates Poverty Crime Income Un-/employment Education Gender balance Working hours Subjective measures Health perception Access to services Material deprivation Safety and trust Life satisfaction Happiness Capabilities Equal opportunities Work life balance People’s Well-being

20. Life expectancy lower in the East • Lifestyle, income and diet • Infant mortality • Road fatalities • Cancer and heart diseases • Access to health care • Quality of health care

21. Life expectancy lower in the East

22. Preventable mortality

23. Mortality rates high less developed MS and regions

24. Unemployment dropped in most regions until the crisis hit

25. Equal opportunities: good news

26. … and some bad news

27. Born outside the EU/US

28. Lower employment rates for born outside EU

29. Population change

30. East and West: opposite trends

31. Rural regions: different trends

32. Primary health care

33. Poverty and deprivation have a strong regional dimension

34. Deprivation is mostly urban

35. At-risk-of-poverty is mixed

36. Crime, violence and vandalism

37. Environmental Sustainability

38. Climate change adaptation • More extreme weather events: storms, heat waves, heavy rains… • More frequent floods • More droughts • Hotter summers leading to a less attractive tourism summer climate in the south • Less snow in the mountains effecting water supply and winter tourism

39. Renewable energy potential

40. … and Member States’ commitments

41. GHG Emissions

42. Air quality low in several cities

43. Environmental quality • EU directive on waste water treatment still requires considerable investments in some Eastern MS • Also in some regions in the EU-15 and the outermost regions compliance has not yet been achieved

44. Chapter 2: National Policies and Cohesion Public investments and structural reforms

45. Role of national governments • EU plays a supporting role in promoting social, economic and environmental development • National governments decide on: • Regional distribution of public investments • Investments in education and health care • Social welfare and income redistribution • Scope and speed of structural reforms • Macro-economic stability

46. Public investment important source of convergence • Many less developed regions have lower levels of physical infrastructure and need more public investment • Public investment is higher in cohesion countries relative to GDP • Public investments are important for growth

47. Public investment and cohesion

48. Structural Reforms • Structural reforms in the areas of labour market, innovation, the business environment, competition and better regulation have been slow and uneven • A better and faster implementation of structural reforms could enhance the growth in less developed regions and strengthen the impact of cohesion policy • A continuing need for public investment, which should not be reduced due to fiscal consolidation

49. Chapter 3:Other EU Policies and Cohesion Implicit and explicit territorial dimensions and territorial impacts

50. Implicit territorial dimension • Spatially blind policies, like the Framework Programme have a strong territorial dimension • They tend to favour highly innovative regions and capital regions • Less developed regions are less successful in obtaining FP funding