The European Commission is keen to strengthen the regional dimension of the competitiveness check-up presented at each Competitiveness Council and intends to open the debate among member states.
In a paper published on Monday 23 July, the Commission poses a series of questions to the member states ahead of the meeting of the high-level working group on competitiveness and growth (HLG) on 7 September.
The aim is to build an overview of national practice across the EU in order to coordinate competitiveness policies between the various administrative levels and determine the extent of territorialisation in competitiveness policy. Above all, the Commission is hoping to devise a way of best integrating the regional dimension in its efforts to promote EU competitiveness.
“The existence of large disparities is a clear signal that some regions and groups of citizens are not benefiting from EU integration”, states the paper. The Commission notes that regional disparities fell by 14% between 2000 and 2015 but the gap between the regions that are lagging behind and those forging ahead (often the capital cities) has broadened, particularly among the Central and Eastern European member states.
For the Commission, the issue is important, given that regional disparities in “the diffusion of new technologies explain a large part of Europe’s slow aggregate productivity growth”. The Commission focus here is on the least developed regions.
Interestingly, the Commission takes cohesion policy as an example for guiding investment in accordance with regional and local needs.
The competitiveness check-up was introduced under the Luxembourg Presidency of the Council of the EU in 2015 (see EUROPE 11363).
The full document (in English) may be found at: https://bit.ly/2A29V3k .
New indicators to gauge competitiveness. Monitoring competitiveness within the EU also requires monitoring industry. On 18 July, the Secretariat General of the Council submitted a note to the Committee of Permanent representatives (Coreper) on monitoring industrial strategy (see EUROPE 11861), setting out an “indicator framework”.
This framework takes account of “headline indicators”, such as, gross value added per person employed and the global share of exported manufactures. It also contains indicators related to investment, to national research and innovation skills and developing the digital economy policies. The circular economy and decarbonisation are also taken into account, as is the extent of the member state’s integration in the single market and international markets.
This latter document (in English) may be found at: https://bit.ly/2LAo1gX. (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)