ESPON Open Seminar Evidence and Knowledge Needs for the Territorial Agenda 2020 and EU Cohesion Policy Godollo, Hungary June 2011 Federica Busillo Ministry of Economic Development Department for Development and Economic Cohesion - Italy

2 GDP per head ; UE- 27=100 (Eurostat Regional Accounts more recent data available) The situation before the crisis In regions with a GDP per head below 75% of the EU-27 average (24 % of EU population)

3 –The effect of the economic and financial crisis has been very differentiated among European regions. In many developed economies the gap between richer and poorer regions widened because of the recession. –In the coming years, the pressure for the consolidation of public finance in Europe is expected to have a greater impact on less prosperous areas, which are more dependent on public transfers and expenditure. –Moreover, public investments, acknowledged as growth-enhancing measures, will be more and more a target of cuts both at national and sub-national level. Countries and Regions should do more with less. –Even so, empirical evidence shows that the potentialities for growth exist in all regions and convergence is possible. The issue “how to better link information and policy” become therefore crucial.

4 What is needed in terms of knowledge and analysis on territorial development? –Focus on all dimensions of development (competitiveness, equity/social inclusion, sustainability) and find out complementarities among the three dimensions. –Increase in productivity has a major impact on growth; therefore, regional data on productivity by sectors can help better understand the specialization of the regions. Moreover, more analysis on the productivity of the tertiary sector; –Regional disparities in terms of education are still very large. Analysis and data on the level of education can help design better skill-enhancing strategy. E.g. in Italy a regionalization of the OECD PISA assessment is carried out. –Focus on the regional dimension of well-being by a wider perspective: looking not only at regional income disparities, but assess inequalities in non market resources (access to public services, inclusion and social development, quality of life, participation in the society).

5 What is needed in terms of knowledge and analysis on territorial development? The quality of information is very important when we look for comparability: relevance, accuracy, timeliness, accessibility, …of the statistics It is relevant to work on different geographies: cities, urban-rural, metropolitan area, functional regions, administrative regions, macro- regions It is relevant to work on definitions: e.g. what do we mean for typologies of territories, functional regions, quality of services, quality of government….? Which type of indicators are more appropriate to assess what? Finally, it is crucial the use of effective communication tools such as GIS data, but also interactive platform