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6th Progress Reporton Social and Economic

Cohesion

The debate on Territorial Cohesion

&Regional Creativity and

Innovation

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6th Progress Report

• Focus is on creativity and innovation and how they contribute to regional development

• The report also includes a short summary of the consultation on the Territorial cohesion Green Paper

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Regional creativity and innovation

Generating a new and useful idea and putting it into practice

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Creativity

• Creativity is fuelled by interaction of different, talented people

• Stimulate local talent• Attract foreign talent• Encourage tolerance• Boost ICT

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Boosting local talent• Education and training

can stimulate creativity

• Large differences remain in terms of secondary and tertiary educational attainment

• Capitals tend to score high due to proximity to universities and (internal) migration of graduates

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Women are gaining more education• On average, women now

have almost the same education level as men.

• In one out two regions, women have a higher educational level than men

• Women aged 25-34 are in virtually all regions more educated than those aged 55-64

• Women aged 25-34 now tend to be more educated than men in the same age group

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New People New IdeasForeign born, 2007

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

Convergence Transition RCE

% of

popu

lati

on

1

5-6

4

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Unemployment shrunk and converged since 2000

Unemployment rate 2007 and evolution 2000 - 2007

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

Convergence Transition RCE

% o

f a

cti

ve po

pula

tion

-5.0

-4.5

-4.0

-3.5

-3.0

-2.5

-2.0

-1.5

-1.0

-0.5

0.0

% p

oin

t c

ha

ng

e

Unemployment rate

Change

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GDP per head continues to converge

GDP/ head (PPS) 2006 and evolution 2000-2006

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

140

Convergence Transition RCE

index E

U2

7=

10

0

-6

-4

-2

0

2

4

6

8

index p

oin

t ch

an

ge

GDP per head

Change in GDP per head

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Employment rate have increased but not converged

Employment rate 2007 and evolution 2000-2007

52

55

58

61

64

67

70

73

Convergence Transition RCE

% o

f popula

tion 1

5-6

4

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

% p

oin

t ch

ange 2

000-2

007

Employment rate

Change in employment rate

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Tolerance is fairly high, but decreasing for ethnic minorities• In the EU four out five are

comfortable with a woman, or someone with different ethnicity, a different religion or a disability or a homosexual in the highest elected political position or as a neighbour

• Comfort levels are lowest for people with a different ethnicity, religion or sexual orientation

• But most people thought ethnic discrimination had increased over the past five years.

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Core Creative class • Core creative class is

high in capitals and other urban regions especially in high-tech regions with many tertiary educated and foreign born residents

• The core creative class are likely to be innovative and entrepreneurial leading to more jobs and growth

• They like tolerant places

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Innovation

• New Firms– Start-ups– New Foreign Firms

• In existing firms– R&D– Technological innovation– Non-technological innovation

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New Firms more innovationFDI high in new Member States

-10 -5 0 5 10 15 20

LuxembourgIrelandSpain

NetherlandsSweden

DenmarkFrance

GermanyItaly

AustriaGreece

SloveniaPortugalFinland

United KingdomBelgiumHungary

PolandLithuania

CyprusSlovakia

Czech RepublicLatvia

RomaniaEstonia

MaltaBulgaria

Average Annual average net FDI in share of GDP, 2005-2007, in %

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Ease of starting a business, World Bank 2009• Only six EU MS are in the World

Bank top 20: Ireland, UK, France, Denmark, Finland and Belgium

• At least 100 countries score better than Germany, Austria, Greece, Spain and Poland

• Easing the creation of start-ups and allowing them to grow fast will improve innovation, growth and jobs

CountryStarting a Business

Ireland 5United Kingdom 8France 14Denmark 16Finland 18Belgium 20Estonia 23Romania 26Hungary 27Sweden 30Portugal 34Latvia 35Slovenia 41Slovakia 48Netherlands 51Italy 53Luxembourg 69Lithuania 74Bulgaria 81Czech Republic 86Germany 102Austria 104Greece 133Spain 140Poland 145

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Productivity is catching upProductivity in industry and services

2006

0

25

50

75

100

125

Convergence Transition RCE

index E

U2

7=

10

0

0.0

0.5

1.0

1.5

2.0

2.5

Avera

ge a

nn

ual re

al pro

du

ctiv

ity g

row

th,

20

00

-2

00

6

Productivity

ProductivityGrowth

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Innovation in firms: R&D and others

R&D expenditure in the business enterprise sector 2006 and evolution 2000-2006

0.00

0.20

0.40

0.60

0.80

1.00

1.20

1.40

Convergence Transition RCE

% o

f G

DP

0.00

0.02

0.04

0.06

0.08

0.10

0.12

0.14

%

poin

ts

of

GD

P

R&D

Change

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Conclusion• Convergence regions

– Embed FDI– Boost educational

attainment and training

– Stimulate tourism

• Transition regions– Shift from efficiency

to innovation– Boost training– Increase R&D– Attract more FDI

• RCE regions– Invest in innovation– Speed up transition

idea to market place– Integrate migrants in

labour market

• All regions– Facilitate start-ups,

especially high-growth– Reduce discrimination– Invest in education

and human capital

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Territorial Cohesion: the debate• Support for the three Cs (concentration,

connections and cooperation)• Functional approaches are endorsed• Local development is highlighted• Some raise the geographic specificities but

little support for separate policies of funds for each specificity

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Cooperation

• Territorial cooperation is an excellent example of European value added and should be reinforced

• Crossborder cooperation: one budget? More eligible actions?

• European Grouping of Territorial Cooperation

• Transnational cooperation: Baltic Sea, Danube…

• Interregional cooperation

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Impacts and measurements

• European policies with a strong territorial impact should be better coordinated by fine-tuning existing instruments

• The understanding and measurement of territorial trends and dynamics should be enhanced

• Favourable mention of ESPON and the Urban Audit