Rethinking Lagging Regions : Using Cohesion Policy to Deliver on the Potential of Europe's Regions

As the World Bank’s 2012 Golden Growth report emphasized, the European Union, since its founding, has been a ‘convergence machine,’ generating wealth and a higher quality of life for the poorest in the 28 EU member states. More recently, the Growin...

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Main Authors: Farole, Thomas, Goga, Soraya, Ionescu-Heroiu, Marcel
Format: Report
Language:English
Published: World Bank, Washington, DC 2018
Subjects:
Online Access:http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/457071525400247519/Full-report
http://hdl.handle.net/10986/29823
id okr-10986-29823
recordtype oai_dc
spelling okr-10986-298232021-05-25T09:14:28Z Rethinking Lagging Regions : Using Cohesion Policy to Deliver on the Potential of Europe's Regions Farole, Thomas Goga, Soraya Ionescu-Heroiu, Marcel LAGGING REGIONS INEQUALITY DEMOGRAPHICS TECHNOLOGY DIGITAL DIVIDE COHESION POLICY INCLUSIVE GROWTH SHARED PROSPERITY POVERTY REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT DISTORTIONS STRUCTURAL TRANSFORMATION AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTIVITY INNOVATION SPECIALIZATION As the World Bank’s 2012 Golden Growth report emphasized, the European Union, since its founding, has been a ‘convergence machine,’ generating wealth and a higher quality of life for the poorest in the 28 EU member states. More recently, the Growing United report highlighted that while the convergence machine still works, it is not working for everyone. And among the fault lines emerging in the convergence machine, regional inequality represents a potent threat to Europe’s economic well-being, and to its social and political cohesion. In this context, Rethinking Lagging Regions highlights the nature and implications of regional inequalities in Europe and recommends how cohesion policy can be leveraged to maximize its impact on lagging regions, and on the businesses and people in these regions. The report has several key messages: regional inequalities are high and likely to rise; Europe’s lagging regions are going in opposite directions, but face common challenges; cohesion policy can maximize its impact on lagging regions by explicitly targeting regional potential and equality of opportunity rather than convergence; cohesion policy priorities can be rebalanced to help deliver on regional potential; and delivery of regional policy needs to engage ever more deeply at the ground level. This report aims to contribute to the debate on the future of cohesion policy, with a specific focus on lagging regions. It calls for a further shift in the objectives of cohesion policy towards an increasingly ‘region-centered’ approach that aims to maximize potential in all regions, while seeking convergence of opportunities for individuals, no matter where they live. 2018-05-15T18:22:06Z 2018-05-15T18:22:06Z 2018 Report http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/457071525400247519/Full-report http://hdl.handle.net/10986/29823 English CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo World Bank World Bank, Washington, DC Economic & Sector Work :: Other Poverty Study Economic & Sector Work Europe and Central Asia Eastern Europe Europe European Union
repository_type Digital Repository
institution_category Foreign Institution
institution Digital Repositories
building World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection World Bank
language English
topic LAGGING REGIONS
INEQUALITY
DEMOGRAPHICS
TECHNOLOGY
DIGITAL DIVIDE
COHESION POLICY
INCLUSIVE GROWTH
SHARED PROSPERITY
POVERTY
REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT
DISTORTIONS
STRUCTURAL TRANSFORMATION
AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTIVITY
INNOVATION
SPECIALIZATION
spellingShingle LAGGING REGIONS
INEQUALITY
DEMOGRAPHICS
TECHNOLOGY
DIGITAL DIVIDE
COHESION POLICY
INCLUSIVE GROWTH
SHARED PROSPERITY
POVERTY
REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT
DISTORTIONS
STRUCTURAL TRANSFORMATION
AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTIVITY
INNOVATION
SPECIALIZATION
Farole, Thomas
Goga, Soraya
Ionescu-Heroiu, Marcel
Rethinking Lagging Regions : Using Cohesion Policy to Deliver on the Potential of Europe's Regions
geographic_facet Europe and Central Asia
Eastern Europe
Europe
European Union
description As the World Bank’s 2012 Golden Growth report emphasized, the European Union, since its founding, has been a ‘convergence machine,’ generating wealth and a higher quality of life for the poorest in the 28 EU member states. More recently, the Growing United report highlighted that while the convergence machine still works, it is not working for everyone. And among the fault lines emerging in the convergence machine, regional inequality represents a potent threat to Europe’s economic well-being, and to its social and political cohesion. In this context, Rethinking Lagging Regions highlights the nature and implications of regional inequalities in Europe and recommends how cohesion policy can be leveraged to maximize its impact on lagging regions, and on the businesses and people in these regions. The report has several key messages: regional inequalities are high and likely to rise; Europe’s lagging regions are going in opposite directions, but face common challenges; cohesion policy can maximize its impact on lagging regions by explicitly targeting regional potential and equality of opportunity rather than convergence; cohesion policy priorities can be rebalanced to help deliver on regional potential; and delivery of regional policy needs to engage ever more deeply at the ground level. This report aims to contribute to the debate on the future of cohesion policy, with a specific focus on lagging regions. It calls for a further shift in the objectives of cohesion policy towards an increasingly ‘region-centered’ approach that aims to maximize potential in all regions, while seeking convergence of opportunities for individuals, no matter where they live.
format Report
author Farole, Thomas
Goga, Soraya
Ionescu-Heroiu, Marcel
author_facet Farole, Thomas
Goga, Soraya
Ionescu-Heroiu, Marcel
author_sort Farole, Thomas
title Rethinking Lagging Regions : Using Cohesion Policy to Deliver on the Potential of Europe's Regions
title_short Rethinking Lagging Regions : Using Cohesion Policy to Deliver on the Potential of Europe's Regions
title_full Rethinking Lagging Regions : Using Cohesion Policy to Deliver on the Potential of Europe's Regions
title_fullStr Rethinking Lagging Regions : Using Cohesion Policy to Deliver on the Potential of Europe's Regions
title_full_unstemmed Rethinking Lagging Regions : Using Cohesion Policy to Deliver on the Potential of Europe's Regions
title_sort rethinking lagging regions : using cohesion policy to deliver on the potential of europe's regions
publisher World Bank, Washington, DC
publishDate 2018
url http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/457071525400247519/Full-report
http://hdl.handle.net/10986/29823
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