Development gaps between Europe’s regions
The European Commission has published its latest ranking under its Regional Competitiveness Index
Bogdan Matei, 08.10.2019, 13:50
A new cold shower for Romania in
Brussels this week, as the European Commission on Monday made public the 2019
results of its Regional Competitiveness Index (RCI), which has been measuring
major factors of competitiveness for European regions every three years. This confirms
the fact that, despite the claims of local and central authorities in Romania,
according to whom Romania has been bridging the development gap compared to
other Western regions, the gaps are still there. The Regional Competitiveness
Index measures factors such as innovation, the complexity of the business
environment, infrastructure or the labor market.
According to an official
Commission release, the 2019 results confirm a polycentric pattern with a
strong performance of most capitals and regions with large cities, while other
regions in the same country in some cases score much worse. Such is the case of
Bulgaria and Romania. According to the 2019 RCI, ranking first in Europe is the
Swedish capital Stockholm, with 100 points, followed by London and Utrecht in
the Netherlands, with 99 points. The most economically dynamic region in
Romania is the Bucharest-Ilfov region, which nevertheless ranks far below other
European regions, namely 158th in a ranking of 268 regions, with
55.9 points. Bucharest too is far from other capitals in Central and Eastern
Europe such as Warsaw, Prague and Bratislava.
The North-West region in Romania,
which also includes the biggest city in Transylvania, Cluj-Napoca, ranks 246th
with 20.9 points. This is also the only region that fares above the national
average of 17.84 points. The North-West region ranks above the European average
only in terms of labor market effectiveness. There are, however, criteria where
Romania’s North-West region has fared poorly compared to similar regions in
Greece, Slovakia and Poland: infrastructure and basic education. Besides,
compared to 2010, when the first RCI results were compiled, the North-West now
ranks below the West region, driven by its largest city, Timisoara. The
South-East region of Romania is ranked in the last-but one position at EU
level, ahead only of the North Aegean region. Pundits note that Romania’s
south-east, including counties such as Braila, Buzau, Constanta, Galati, Tulcea
and Vrancea, in fact fares below the French Guiana, an overseas department and
region of France, which is the third most underdeveloped region in the 2019
RCI. Experts also say this is a sign of
poor local administration. Galati and Braila are Romania’s biggest ports on the
Danube, while Constanta is one of Europe’s largest maritime ports, flanked by
popular seacoast resorts. Tulcea, on the other hand, encompasses the Danube
Delta, and all the aforementioned counties boast significant industrial
activities.
(Translated by V.
Palcu)
