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The contribution of regions and local
governments to the Lisbon strategy
Presentation at the
„Open Days – European Week of
Regions and Cities”
Regional Lisbon Governance Workshop
Brussels
13. October 2005
Iván Tosics
Metropolitan Research Institute, Budapest
([email protected])
The issue of competitiveness
• Definitions of competitiveness range from narrow
economic approach to broader, more complex ones.
• OECD (2003) offers an example on the latter as follows:
“An economy is competitive if its population can enjoy
high and rising standards of living and high employment
on a sustainable basis. … the level of economic activity
should not cause an unsustainable external balance of
the economy nor should it compromise the welfare of
future generations.”
• The broader definitions of competitiveness are usually
based on three pillars: economic growth, social
cohesion and environmental quality. The well known
statistics based on GDP/capita does not adequately
measure performances in the sense of such broader
definitions.
Competitiveness in the US and in Europe
• From economic point of view the regions of the USA are the
most competitive in the world, but in living conditions many
of them are far behind the European metropolitan areas.
• Innovative European cities offer, besides buoyant economic
activities, also attractive (renewed) urban areas, healthy
environment, and social calm, proving that competitiveness
in urban areas is more than economic growth and job
creation.
• The liveability of European urban areas is an important asset,
usually not even mentioned in the new EU analyses on
competitiveness.
• It is clear that under present circumstances economic
considerations must get more priority in European
development, and the „goal congestion” (setting too many
goals to reach) should be avoided. Even so, environmental
and social aspects have to remain on the agenda, they have
to be considered as integral part of competitiveness.
The broader view on competitiveness
• The market is unable to coordinate between the three
dimensions of competitiveness, this remains a political task, in
which governance becomes the key tool.
• According to most analysts the Functional Urban Areas
around large cities are the most important units regarding
competitiveness, as these provide for the economy of scale
and this is the level where positive externalities can be
achieved and negative externalities can be addressed most
efficiently. Thus the National Lisbon Strategies have to call for
the preparation of regional strategies.
• Economic competitiveness of territorial units has a number of
success factors, such as specialisation and sectoral structure,
innovation and knowledge, accessibility and connectivity.
• The fulfilment of these requirements, in balance with
sustainability and social factors, requires clear strategy on
the sub-national level of territorial units, which must be
based on cooperation between different actors and policy
areas. Thus also on the regional and local level governance
becomes the most important factor.
The Lisbon goals and subsidiarity
The key for the fulfilment of the Lisbon goals is the good split of tasks
and cooperation between the different levels of the public sector.
• The European Union should ensure the general framework for
open market competition while defining the minimal environmental
and social conditions to be fulfilled
• The national level should modify accordingly the regulations and
budget expenditures related to the support of economic
development and the job market (reducing unemployment and
increasing activity rates, increasing educational attainment and
workforce skills, promoting knowledge capital development,
improving regulatory policies)
• The regional level should set up strategy for economic
development (controled for sustainability and social inclusion) while
being also responsible for the region-wide large infrastructure and
regional job market
• The local level should decide about the development of adequate
economic clusters (within the framework of the regional strategy).
Open question fornational debates: what regulatory powers, policies
and financial means should the national level transfer to the regional
level in order to enhance overall competitiveness?
Secondary effects of EU policies
The cohesion policy of the EU offers important help for
development, especially for regions lagging behind in
their development. The overview of EU regulations
from a competitiveness angle shows, however, also
secondary, negative factors.
• The Structural Funds regulation, in order to maximize EU
funding, might create incentives for functional urban
areas to split into smaller administrative regions.
• Many of the EU directives, especially regulations aiming
at environmental quality protection, are too inflexible,
leading to sub-optimal, even counter-productive results.
In order to achieve more sensible solutions, EU
requirements should become more flexible (US
approach: transferability in the fulfilment of the
requirements).
BUDAPEST AND THE CENTRAL HUNGARIAN
REGION
AGGLOMERATION AREA
BUDAPEST
CENTRAL HUNGARIAN REGION
The Lisbon agenda from regional and urban angle
Competitiveness in urban areas relates to special
problems, such as inactive and ageing population, the
existence of the „working poor”, which are in many cases
more difficult, as to be solved simply by job creation.
• Territorial concentrations of multiple deprivation require
complex strategies, such as area based urban renewal
both in physical and social sense. Area based
programmes offer job opportunities (renovation work,
public space upkeeping) and improve the living
conditions of people within their present urban
surroundings.
• Well-balanced sectoral and territorial interventions might
be needed to handle the problem of the working poor,
offering alternative solutions. Interventions might be
needed to help inner city trade as opposed to outer
shopping centers (offering low wage jobs), to promote
brown-field restructuring as opposed to outer, green-field
investments.
The optimal contribution from regional
and local level to the Lisbon process
• There regional and local players are those who
know the best, how the special problems of their
areas can be handled
• Good practices from Budapest:
– Establishment of governance-type cooperation to
overcome bottlenecks of employment programmes
– Initiating area-based complex renewal (with physical
and social aims) of run-down urban neighbourhood
• Next task to do: work out and implement regionwide strategy for economic development
Regional implementation programmes
for the national Lisbon strategy
• The Hungarian National Lisbon Action Programme has been
developed in cooperation of national level institutions and
addresses exclusively those factors which belong to national
competence. The draft has been sent out for discussion with NGOs,
regional and local actors.
• The success of the national programme depends on the
preparation of regional implementation programmes, ensuring
the tailor-made approach to the economic and job-creation goals
and also the necessary weight of sustainability and inclusion criteria.
• For the Central Hungarian Region (Budapest and Pest county)
many special problems have to be addressed: the large
differences within the region, the Budapest governance problems
(scattered local government system), the problems of deteriorated
areas, the challenge of urban sprawl as opposed of deteriorating
brown-field areas, the over-centralization of trade as opposed to
areas where shops close down.
• The priorities of the CHR should be worked out and summarized in a
regional strategy document which should become part of the
National Lisbon Strategy.
Summary: new approach suggested for the
preparation of the National Lisbon Strategies
• Regional and local involvement is needed in the
preparation of the National Lisbon Strategies, as only
these actors can ensure the use of local opportunities
and the addressing of local needs, and to ensure the
necessary weight for environmental and social
aspects.
• Existing regional and local strategic development plans
(competitiveness/sustainability/inclusion plans) should
be used as starting points to elaborate the regional
dimension of the National Lisbon Programme.
• The EU should urge national governments to look at the
Lisbon strategy in broader view, including sustainability
and social elements, and to involve regional and local
bodies through the generation of OMC-plus
processes.
Thank you for your
attention!
[email protected]