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EU local and regional authorities contributing to the mid-term review of Europe 2020

Assessment of the flagship initiative An industrial policy for the globalisation era

Almost three years after the launch of Europe 2020, the Committee of the Regions has launched a broad assessment of the Strategy in preparation for its mid-term review, expected in 2014.

As part of this assessment, the replies to this questionnaire on the state of play of the flagship initiative An industrial policy for the globalisation era will be discussed at a conference to be held on 10 April 2013 in Brussels.

This conference will be the third in a series of CoR events and monitoring initiatives on the Europe 2020 flagship initiatives, preparing the mid-term review in 2014. More news on this conference can be found on the CoR website.

By participating in this survey, you will:

·  ensure that your views are taken into account in the debate held during the conference;

·  contribute to the CoR's consultative activity over the coming months, to include an opinion drafted by Claude Gewerc, President of Picardy Regional Council (PES/FR), scheduled for adoption at the CoR plenary session on 10-11 April 2013;

·  contribute to the fourth CoR Monitoring Report on Europe 2020, to be published in October 2013;

·  contribute to the mid-term review of Europe 2020 in 2014.

If you wish to participate in this survey, please complete this questionnaire in any eu language, using the spaces provided, and return it in text format to:

by 1 March 2013
The questionnaire will be available in all languages in mid January
For more information on this survey and for details on how to join the Europe 2020 Monitoring Platform, go to:
http://portal.cor.europa.eu/europe2020/

CDR1801-2013_00_00_TRA_TCD .../...

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Contributor information

Name of sender: / Karina Bedrunka
Contact details: (address, telephone, email) / ul. Piastowska 14, 45-082 Opole,
Tel. 77 54 16565,
e-mail:
On behalf of:
(name of local or regional authority) / Marshall's Office of the Opolskie Region
Type of organisation / County/Province
Country: / Poland
Member of the EUROPE 2020 Monitoring Platform: / Yes No

Current policy challenges and responses at regional and local level

1) What are the main challenges faced by industry in your region/city?
Please answer with respect to competitiveness (market trends; positioning in the market; competitors) and employment (finding the necessary workforce with the right skills; ability to create new jobs).
In the Opolskie Region, in line with a new approach to cohesion policy, regional specialisation including smart specialisation is seen as the key to making regions more competitive and innovative. Concentration in particular areas is therefore one of the main factors determining priorities for projects implemented in the region. However, given demographic change in the region, preventing depopulation processes has become the main development challenge for the regional authority, and a factor determining action in other areas.
In the context of industrial policy, measures financed by the European Regional Development Fund and the European Social Fund aim to develop business innovation, create a competitive and stable labour market, and support strong businesses.
2) Do these challenges differ from those faced in 2010 (when the Europe 2020 strategy was launched)? If so, in what respect?
Please make a distinction between structural problems and problems resulting from the impact of the economic and financial crisis.
In general, the above-mentioned challenges are the same as in 2010. However, the current situation in the region, particularly in the context of ongoing demographic processes and labour market developments, has forced the regional authority to change its previous approach.
At the same time, new trends in the implementation of regional policy have also influenced changes, as confirmed by the Opolskie Regional Development Strategy up to 2020.
3) How are your regional/local policies addressing these challenges?
Please make clear whether you are (i) working on the basis of a local/regional industrial strategy; (ii) providing direct support to firms and networks/clusters; (iii) encouraging stronger relationships between firms, universities, public and private research institutions; (iv) improving the business environment, including through administrative simplification; (v) undertaking a proactive industrial policy, focusing on certain activities or sectors; or a mix of these actions.
Please provide examples (or at least web references).
In 2007-2013 funding from the European Regional Development Fund and the European Social Funds was used in the above areas to support the following measures, among others, on the basis of regional strategic documents:
·  supporting investment processes, directly linked to a broader scope for activities by business support organisations to promote business start-ups and development - investment support to assist with business start-ups or help businesses continue operating on markets, e.g. business incubators, as well as industrial, science and technology parks and clusters,
·  putting in place conditions for projects to help the R&D sector drive business innovation; initiating and expanding cooperation between the R&D sector and business in order to facilitate the transfer of new technologies to business activity,
·  taking a range of measures to reduce red tape, for example by implementing recommendations made by the working group on simplifying systems for using EU funding,
·  raising the quality of education, and taking initiatives to adapt education to the needs of the labour market (e.g. by organising traineeships for vocational school students, organising pedagogical activities to develop pupils' key competences, especially in terms of language learning and entrepreneurship, providing careers advice),
·  promoting an active society to enable development through continuing training (both formal and informal), with a view to helping people find work quickly at all stages of their lives,
·  developing and strengthening entrepreneurial mindsets (for example through training/consultancy and grants for business start-ups), in order to support employment and self-employment,
·  supporting SMEs through consultancy/training,
·  putting in place conditions to support cooperation between the research and development sector and business (internships organised for researchers in companies and for business employees in research organisations, temporary secondment of skilled personnel to micro-enterprises and SMEs, scholarships for doctoral students in areas of key importance for the region's development),
·  promoting the development and implementation of innovative solutions through cooperation between the research and development sector and business.
BOX 1 – An Industrial Policy for the Globalisation Era
The Europe 2020 flagship initiative An integrated industrial policy for the globalisation era, adopted by the European Commission on 28 October 2010, sets out a strategy that aims to boost growth and jobs by maintaining and supporting a strong, diversified and competitive industrial base in Europe, offering well-paid jobs while becoming more resource-efficient.[1]. The flagship initiative highlights ten key actions for European industrial competitiveness:
1. "competitiveness proofing" i.e. analysis of the impact on competitiveness of all policy proposals;
2. "fitness checks" of existing legislation aimed at reducing the cumulative effects of legislation in order to cut costs for businesses in Europe;
3. making it easier for SMEs to access credit and facilitating their internationalisation;
4. a strategy to strengthen European standardisation;
5. more efficient European transport, energy and communication infrastructure and services to serve European industry;
6. a new strategy on raw materials creating the right framework conditions for sustainable supply and management of domestic primary raw materials;
7. addressing sector-specific innovation performance with specific actions, in such areas as advanced manufacturing technologies, construction, bio-fuels and road and rail transport, particularly with a view to improving resource efficiency;
8. actions to improve framework conditions and support innovation in energy-intensive industries;
9. a space industrial policy creating a solid industrial base and covering the whole supply chain;
10. reporting on Europe’s and Member States' competitiveness, industrial policies and performance on an annual basis.
These actions are implemented through more than 70 measures, whose state of play can be found on DG Enterprise and Industry's website..
You can find more information on An industrial policy for the globalisation era, seen from the point of view of local and regional authorities, in the Committee of the Regions' publication Delivering on the Europe 2020 Strategy. Handbook for Local and Regional Authorities. General information on Europe 2020 can be found on the strategy's official website.[2].

How is the Europe 2020 flagship initiative An industrial Policy for the Globalisation Era relevant to your city or region?

4) With respect to industrial policy, how would you evaluate the support your city/region has received from EU policies so far? Was it sufficient in view of the challenges you are facing in this area? As concerns EU-financed investments, in which area has more added value been created (e.g. infrastructure, skills, innovation, etc.)?
Please answer with reference to the various existing strands of EU policy (Europe 2020 flagship initiative "An industrial policy in the globalisation era", Structural Funds, 7th Framework Programme, Competitiveness and Innovation Programme, etc.).
Please comment both on the policy tools used and on funding.
Funding from the EU budget during the 2007-2013 period has had a significant influence on the development of entrepreneurship and industry in the region, and its use under the Opolskie Regional Operational Programme has brought significant benefits for the region's entire economy.
The funding received by the region has been used to achieve the objectives of industrial policy defined at regional level. Among other things, the measures mentioned in Point 3 have enabled projects to boost economic competitiveness and make the region more attractive, by:
·  implementing projects to support businesses, especially micro-enterprises and SMEs,
·  developing the potential of innovative companies,
·  supporting the R&D sector and institutions promoting entrepreneurship, while improving the quality of infrastructure and tourism services,
·  enhancing workers' employability and limiting time spent out of work,
·  providing businesses with a new pool of skills so they can adapt rapidly to changes in the market; stimulating self-employment.
5) The Europe 2020 flagship initiative An integrated industrial policy for the globalisation era (see Box 1 above), as reviewed by the Commission Communication A stronger European industry for growth and economic recovery of 10 October 2012, sets out a "renewed industrial policy" based on the four pillars presented in Box 2 below.
Which of these pillars are more relevant to your specific local/regional situation?
The most important cross-cutting development challenge facing the Opolskie region is to prevent and combat depopulation processes. The region is steadily losing its demographic capital, especially as a result of the tradition of - usually economic - migration abroad, combined with low natural growth. These unfavourable demographic trends can be managed through a comprehensive approach, with measures to develop:
·  an active society, ready to meet the needs of the labour market,
·  a competitive innovation-based economy in which there is close cooperation with the research sector.
In view of the above, there is an emphasis on the importance of human resources in the new industrial policy, especially given that transformation processes in knowledge-based sectors are led by people; moreover, a company's human resources give it a competitive edge.
Regional specialisation including smart specialisation is also important as the basis of a region's competitiveness and innovation. Identifying and developing areas of specialisation is based on internal development potential and modern technologies.
Work has been done to identify sectors in the region which are key or potentially key for regional specialisation. These sectors are as follows: chemicals, construction, minerals, construction services, machinery and mechanical engineering, fuel and energy, agriculture and food, wood and paper, including furniture, metals and metallurgy, medical and rehabilitation services, tourism, transport and logistics.
It should also be emphasised that Opolskie is characterised by its highly developed industrial sector, which generates 30.7% of gross added value in the region's economy. The industrial profile of the region is determined above all by companies operating in industrial processing, electricity production and distribution, gas, and water (top place in the country in terms of percentage of gross added value).
BOX 2 - An industrial policy for the globalisation era: 2012 update
The flagship initiative on industrial policy, as reviewed by the Communication of 10 October 2012, places more emphasis on short-term, growth-enhancing measures resulting from the economic crisis and its impact on EU industry. The flagship initiative is based on an extensive consultation of stakeholders carried out in the first half of 2012, which highlighted the impact of the crisis in terms of job losses, the decline of industrial production and very low business confidence. Those short-term problems go hand in hand with EU industry's structural competitiveness problems. The European Commission's response is based on these four “pillars of the reinforced industrial policy”, to be addressed through partnership involving the EU, its Member States and industry:
-  Investments in innovation, with a focus on six priority areas with great potential (advanced manufacturing technologies for clean production; key enabling technologies; bio-based products; sustainable industrial and construction policy and raw materials; clean vehicles and vessels; smart grids).
-  Better market conditions, both in the internal market, with special reference to goods, entrepreneurship and the protection of intellectual property rights, and in international markets.
-  Access to finance and capitals, through better mobilising and targeting of public resources, including from the EIB, and by unlocking private funds.
-  Human capital and skills, to promote job creation and better anticipation of, and investments in, the skills needed to promote industry's competitiveness.

Are your country's policies relevant to your city or region?

6) To help meet these objectives, your country has set its own targets, which you can find at http://ec.europa.eu/europe2020/pdf/targets_en.pdf. Are your country's targets appropriate to your local (regional) situation?
Please explain, bearing in mind that "An industrial policy for the globalisation era" can potentially contribute to at least the following Europe 2020 targets:
– in a quite direct manner: 75% of the 20-64 year-olds to be employed; 3% of the EU's GDP to be invested in research and innovation (public and private investment);