On Monday 8 April, the European Commissioner for Cohesion and Reforms, Elisa Ferreira, said that the 9th Cohesion Report (see EUROPE 13380/7), published by the European Commission in late March, demonstrated the positive impact of European cohesion policy in terms of economic convergence and catching up within the Member States and the European Union.
“Some regions are lagging behind in terms of development, but there is hope because they are growing very, very fast”, Ms Ferreira told a number of journalists, including Agence Europe. According to her, “the southern and western regions are losing their (economic) stamina, while the eastern regions are catching up very quickly”.
The former MEP acknowledged that “imbalances and disparities” were still visible. She cited the example of regions that are literally “trapped”, “like in France ”, in particular because they have not managed to change their economic development model after abandoning a technology or the exploitation of a raw material.
Moreover, in such a situation, where citizens see that their future is not bright, they can “start to be afraid” and feel “disenchantment” with an economy open to competition and globalisation, she noted. “There is a correlation between stagnation and disenchantment”, she stressed.
And the report on cohesion, which the European Commissioner will present at the European Cohesion Forum on Thursday 11 and Friday 12 April, may help to shed light on this phenomenon.
Ms Ferreira also spoke of the situation of regions facing a talent development trap, particularly among the younger generations. The areas most affected include Lorraine and Corsica in France, the Italian Mezzogiorno region, the former East Germany and virtually the whole of Romania and Bulgaria.
According to the Commissioner, this exodus pushes the younger generations first to the large urban areas of the same country, a phenomenon that creates new disparities at national level, and then to other EU countries that are more attractive in terms of salaries and quality of life. In response, some countries have developed strategies to combat this exodus and retain talent by trying to attract new investment.
Link to the report: https://aeur.eu/f/biw (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)