EU regionalism

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

2. 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

3. 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

4. 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

5. 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

6. 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

7. 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

8. 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

9. 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

10. 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)

11. 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

12. 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

13. 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

14. 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

15. 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

16. 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

17. Thank you for your attention!