Teodora Brandmuller Head of Section – Regional and urban statistics Conclusions and follow-up of the hearings between DG REGIO and Eurostat Teodora Brandmuller Head of Section – Regional and urban statistics Hearings between DG REGIO and Eurostat 01 July Operational level 08 September Director level 16 September Director General level October 2011

Geographical coverage of support: A new architecture of Cohesion Policy Three categories of regions Less developed regions: GDP per head < 75% EU Transition regions :GDP per head > 75% and < 90%) More developed regions: GDP per head > 90% Cohesion Fund for Member States with GNI per capita <90% 11-Oct-2011

Budget for Cohesion Policy post 2013   billion EUR (2011 prices) Cohesion Fund 68.7 Less developed regions 162.6 Transition regions 39.0 More developed regions 53.1 Territorial Cooperation 11.7 Extra allocation for outermost and northern regions 0.9 TOTAL 336.0 Connecting Europe facility for transport, energy and ICT 40.0 376.0 11-Oct-2011

Cohesion Policy: key role to achieve EU 2020 goals Europe 2020 Strategy – a new strategy for Europe Smart growth Growth for all Sustainable growth EU Member States have set national 2020 targets Future Cohesion Policy must be aligned with Europe 2020 Funding will remain concentrated in less developed regions 11-Oct-2011

Regional data is essential to allocate the funds to evaluate proposals to assess the impact of the policy measures to monitor to report complete data set quality grade “A” to monitor changes over time DG REGIO needs a benchmark at the beginning, at the mid-way and at the end of the period the goal is not to reliably detect small changes, but to detect significant shifts Grade “A” An indicator is graded “A” when all of the following conditions are fulfilled: - Data is collected from reliable sources applying high standards with regard to methodology/accuracy and is well documented in line with Eurostat metadata standard. - The underlying data is collected on the basis of a common methodology for the European Union and, where applicable, data for US and Japan can be considered comparable; major differences being assessed and documented. - Data are comparable over time; impact of procedural or conceptual changes being documented. To monitor changes over time during the next programming period, DG REGIO needs a benchmark at the beginning of the period. This could be a single year (for example 2013) or an average of two or three years. The same applies to a mid-way mark (2016-2018) and the end of the period (2020-2022). The goal is not to reliably detect small changes, but to detect significant shifts over this period. Reporting The combined at risk of poverty or exclusion indicator is more demanding to monitor at the regional level. As a result, this indicator would primarily be used for reporting and not for monitoring. For example, it could show the concentration of at risk of poverty or exclusion in less developed regions. Descriptive use Poverty or exclusion indicators below NUTS 2 level can be useful to assess the character of poverty and exclusion. For example, whether it tends to higher in predominantly urban or rural NUTS 3 regions. For these figures, more experimental techniques can be used such as model-based, small area estimations. 11-Oct-2011

Key indicators to allocate funds and to be used in negotiations Set up a project team to harmonise data delivery Total population (also at NUTS3 level) GDP in PPS number of unemployed, active population and unemployment rate employment rate ages 20-64, employment 20-64 and population 20-64 tertiary educational attainment, age group 30-34: rate, absolute figures and corresponding population early leavers from education and training: rate, absolute figures and corresponding population surface area (land area and total area) Unit F1 Unit C2 Unit F2 all indicators are required at NUTS2 level (NUTS 2006 as long as the regional GDP figures refer to this "old" breakdown then in NUTS 2010) should be complete in 2012 and 2013 for the 3 latest available years for the Croatian regions as well Unit F4 Unit E4 11-Oct-2011

New indicators to monitor and report Smart growth annual regional business demography indicators Sustainable growth regional environmental data collection Inclusive growth regional indicators for at risk of poverty or exclusion 11-Oct-2011

Consolidation of existing regional data collections Reducing the response burden Timeliness and quality control Regional data in the Annual Work Programme (AWP) - reflect on the possibilities how to anticipate better the changes initiated by thematic units concerning regional data - include an updated version of the 'Reference Guide' in 'Statistics explained' DG REGIO explained it is aware of the constraints faced by national statistical institutes. As a result, it focuses its proposals on data based on registers (business registers, registered crime), on indicators that refer to the entire sample (SILC), it can provide financial support. DG REGIO can also provide policy justification for its data needs and provide evidence of how the data is used. The current format of the AWP does not allow for a clear indication of the domains where regional indicators are collected and published. DG REGIO is concerned that this may be misinterpreted as a low priority for regional data collections. Therefore, DG REGIO encourages ESTAT to find a clear place for regional data in the structure of future AWPs. 11-Oct-2011

Degree of urbanisation DG REGIO is in the process of the finishing the revision of the degree of urbanisation. Once complete, DG REGIO will transfer this file to ESTAT for publication dissemination and implementation 11-Oct-2011

Thank you for your attention! October 2011