Growth for everyone

The European commission has just launched a wide-ranging reflection period on the future of EU regional policy after 2013. What shape the policy will take and how funds will be distributed are just two of the questions up for debate. The Conference of Peripheral Maritime Regions (CPMR), an association that brings together more then 150 regions in Europe, is among those urging the EU not to allow the current discussions to become bogged down in financial considerations.

The CPMR, together with the Committee of the Regions, recently hosted a debate on this issue and used this event to present to the EU institutions and member states its current position on regional policy - and its initial proposals. What we believe is that after 2013, EU cohesion, or regional, policy should distinguish between, on the one hand, so-called convergence policies targeting least prosperous member states and regions, the pre-accession countries, states situated at the external borders of the EU and its outermost regions and, on the other hand, a policy of territorial excellence for all the regions of Europe.

Since globalisation has a different impact on each region, a regional policy for all European regions is more necessary than ever before. Even so, the challenges affecting the least prosperous regions should be given specific treatment. Therefore, we are proposing that from 2014 onwards, cohesion policy makes this important distinction.

The CPMR proposal represents a highly ambitious new approach to EU regional policy. Under our convergence proposal, funds would be allocated not only to the least prosperous regions in the EU but also to its neighbouring countries. We have to understand that in order to ensure peace and wealth in our continent we must look first to our borders. Helping our neighbours grow will also help markets develop in the EU’s less prosperous regions, thus reinforcing the impact of EU regional funding.

Such a policy would also enhance stability at the EU’s doors by creating an acceptable and ‘privileged partnership’ status for border countries which are not expected to join the EU. In establishing a stable and prosperous region (which would include southern Mediterranean countries and former Soviet Union states such as Ukraine), with some 800 million inhabitants, Europe would achieve the ‘critical mass’ needed to compete with the likes of China and India. 

The ‘territorial excellence’ policy we proposed would apply in all European regions in order to optimise the participation of each in the European project. This policy would strengthen regional knowledge and innovation by improving research and consolidating territorial attractiveness, target adaptation to climate change and the alleviation of environmental damage by providing systematic aid and support environmental measures and socio-economic diversification in rural areas.

But we are not concentrating solely on economic competitiveness and the EU’s wealthiest regions. The idea behind territorial excellence is to concentrate funding on the potential of each and every region. This does not mean that we should expect those regions with a lower potential to evolve less and simply be satisfied with what they have, however. On the contrary, we believe we can make any region grow by developing its assets and niches.

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