The Committee of the Regions (CoR) has “very warmly” welcomed the reflection paper on globalisation presented by the European Commission (see EUROPE 11785). This is because this document places a lot of emphasis on the importance of the regions.
In a reply to EUROPE, one CoR source expressed their organisation’s “deep satisfaction” and welcomed the emphasis put on multilevel governance, the key role of the ESI funds and the need to include less developed regions in this reflection. Our same source appeared to suggest that this development has come about due to a certain influence exerted by the cabinet of the Commissioner for Regional Policy, Corina Creţu. Their only concern was the mention of the EFSI in the context of regional funds, although this is not strictly part of this area of funding.
To be more precise, the source of the above-mentioned satisfaction stems from the second section in the Commission reflection paper focusing on the Union’s domestic policy and does indeed concentrate on the regions and structural and investment funds. This section particularly seeks to, “strengthen the resilience” of the European economy, the distribution of wealth, whilst improving “long-term” competitiveness. These are the main guidelines resonating with the objectives pursued by cohesion policy.
Therefore, in the subsection dedicated to education and social policies – the latter were also the subject of a recent reflection document (see EUROPE 11775) – the European Commission directly refers to the use of structural and investment funds as a lever to strengthen infrastructure and innovation, as well as develop human capital.
Above all, another subsection also directly mentions the regions and proposes to strengthen its responsibility in the context of a “closer partnership”.
In its analysis, the Commission highlights the fact that the benefits of globalisation are indeed diffuse but that the “costs are often localised” and therefore demonstrate that the transformation of the economy is, above all, operating at a local level where “companies are interacting with people”. In this connection, the Commission again refers to the potential support of the ESI funds through intelligent specialisation strategies. It should be recalled that the strategies seek to highlight the importance of regional specificities by optimising their economic assets.
In a graph, the Commission clearly illustrates the burden sharing necessary to “master globalisation” at the different decision-making levels: European, national, regional and local.
The regions are therefore responsible for setting up modern infrastructure, intelligent specialisation policies, terrestrial and maritime logistical networks, quality education and training and, obviously, the use of regional funds. In this respect, it is surprising that the European Fund for Strategic Investment (EFSI) is explicitly mentioned.
The cities are responsible for developing strategies for “smart cities”, integration of migrants, innovation poles and business incubators. (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)