Our Mission is to further the objectives of the European Union by making long-term finance available for sound investment.
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SESSION I :
"Regional Development Policies - Factors for Success"
Supporting balanced regional development by financing sound investment is the EIB's core activity. In some Member States, the Bank's activity as well as EU regional policy have helped regions to catch up economically. In others, success is less obvious. But even where Member States have caught up successfully, divergence among regions within one and the same country has not necessarily narrowed. Therefore, the central questions to be raised are what has worked and what went wrong and, even more important, what are the lessons to be learnt from this?
This is all the more important as Europe faces new challenges. New technologies and the emerging information society may benefit above all already highly developed regions, but possibly also regions on the periphery, as distance becomes less a factor of separation. Dynamic regions may resist being burdened too heavily with transferring payments to regions lagging behind as this could undermine their own competitive position in international markets.
A matter of considerable importance: we stand on the threshold of enlargement of the European Union to Central and Eastern Europe and the South. With enlargement, regional divergence will rise to unprecedented levels. Inevitably, the question will be raised as to what extent divergence can be tolerated, and to what extent others can be expected mutually to assist new members in the catching-up process.
Financial resources for assisting disadvantaged regions may become scarcer. Hence, it will be all the more important to make the best possible use of available resources, whether grants or loans, in order to enhance regional development.
Regional success has many ingredients: in addition to financial resources, quite a number of factors such as functioning administrations, proper development planning, autonomy in decision-making combined with political accountability of decision-makers, the availability of entrepreneurial people and a skilled workforce. Last but not least, there is a need for general economic policies that set the right incentives for structural change, economic growth and job creation. The subject is a complex one but it might, nevertheless, be possible to identify the most important factors for successful regional development.
SESSION II, SUB-SESSION 1 :
"Lessons from Regional Policy Experience"
Experience shows that regional success much depends on a proper institutional and administrative frame-work allowing co-ordinated and responsible decision-making as well as on setting the right incentives. Success also calls for strategic thinking and a balanced development policy, i.e. conventional comprehensive planning covering infrastructure, human resources development, incentives for SMEs and the like. In this session, regional policy practitioners will present their views on essential considera-tions, and on the impact of regional assistance.
SESSION II, SUB-SESSION 2 :
"Financing Regional Development"
With ongoing integration of the euro zone's financial markets, SMEs' and regional/local authorities' access to finance seems to have improved which in turn will benefit regional development.
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