According to the most recent Regional Competitiveness Index (RCI) for 2016 published by the European Commission on Monday 27 February, the situation in the southern regions of the EU and Ireland appeared to stabilise between 2013 and 2016.
The RCI is based on the NUTS 2 (Nomenclature of Units for Territorial Statistics) regions. The authors consider that the competitiveness situation has improved when there is an increase in the index of more than 5% and, on the contrary, when there is deterioration in the index of 5%.
On this basis, although the level of competitiveness has remained lower than that in 2010, all the regions in the Mediterranean basin in Spain, Italy and in Greece, excluding Cyprus, but also including Ireland, appeared to have a more stable situation compared to the previous competitiveness index published in 2013. Nonetheless, this stabilisation does not necessarily mean that there has been an improvement.
On the other hand, over the 2013—2016 period, it would appear that many Belgian regions, including Bruxelles-Capitale and some Dutch regions experienced a deterioration in their situation on the basis of this index. With regard to Belgium, the Commission noted that its regions had experienced a sharp increase in their competitiveness between 2010 and 2013, similarly to the German regions apart from the fact that the latter have not experienced any deterioration since then.
Overall, over the 2010-2016 period, three member states appear to be standing out: France, Germany and Sweden. Regions in the East also appear to have maintained their competitiveness levels.
London region above average. If we focus on the study in 2016 alone and as we begin negotiations on the United Kingdom’s exit from the EU, the United Kingdom (particularly the London area) is among the member states with the best results in terms of competitiveness, if the index is to be believed. These states include France, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands and Scandinavian member states, which are also above average.
At a more general level, a major trend appears to be borne out, According to one source close to the dossier: capital cities and regions with major universities and direct access to the single market are obtaining the best results by far, compared to regions that are far from urban areas, without universities and far away from the market.
Data that should be handled with great care. As one European source confirmed to us, these rankings are “delicate instruments” and should be handled with care. The 2016 competitiveness index therefore attempts to avoid emphasising certain regions over others and simply highlight the different strong and weak points between the regions at an equivalent development level.
The authors of the study explain that with regard to data comparison between 2010 and 2016, readers should also adopt a cautious approach for two reasons: new indicators have been integrated, whilst the others used in previous studies, have not been sufficiently updated to be integrated in the 2016 index. They also indicate that a category change is sometimes caused by a very minor difference in the results obtained.
A recent regional services index. The RCI was launched in 2010 and is updated every three years. The Commission explains that it seeks to guide the regions in investment choices, in an effort to maximise impact.
The index consists of 74 structured indicators based around 11 thematic pillars (institutions, macro-economic stability, infrastructure, health, basic education, higher education, labour market efficiency, market size, technological maturity, enterprise sophistication and innovation).
This instrument is inspired by the Global Competitiveness Index of the World Economic Forum (GCI-WEF). (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)