Umeå, 25/09/2014 (Agence Europe) - The question of GDP in the calculation of European structural fund distribution in the regions promises to be the next significant area of cohesion policy construction.
The outermost and maritime regions remain very critical with regard to the subject of GDP as a pillar of the methodology used by the European Commission in working out the level of European regional development.
Alternative indicators. Their representatives repeated this message during the Conference of Peripheral Maritime Regions (CPMR) on Thursday 25 September in Umeå, Sweden. As illustrated by a delegate from the Shetland region of the United Kingdom, who pointed out that irrespective of whether GDP is high, a peripheral region has to shoulder an additional 5% in marketing costs, “we need a better indicator that takes into account remoteness”. One of his Finnish counterparts questioned the very legitimacy of such an indicator and suggested that other criteria in the calculating method be taken into account, such as governance (including corruption) or income inequality. The Commission is not immune to this kind of criticism and Wolfgang Streitenberger, adviser to the Director-General at DG REGIO, admitted that after 2020, new criteria may be introduced, without, however replacing the GDP indicator.
Throughout the cohesion policy reform for the 2014-2020 programming period, the CPMR appealed for a calculating method that more appropriately reflected the situation in the regions. During the two years of negotiations, the Commission turned a deaf ear to these concerns but it now appears that door may have been left open. The sixth cohesion report mentions the need to begin reflection on this subject. The European Commissioner for Regional Development, Johannes Hahn, also mentioned this possibility in the Cohesion Forum at the beginning of September. (MD)