Politicians keen to claim success for their strategies welcome any statistic that even approaches an endorsement of their economic objectives. Measures which generate a tangible improvement in the standard of living for the territory under their control are seized with both hands. Electronic commerce and its institution as a bedrock of economic development for the West Midlands of the UK is a prime example, provided that the potentially conflicting forces at work can be accommodated.
A central tenet of European Union philosophy is that greater prosperity can be achieved by levelling the nations of Europe to a common denominator, rather than encouraging the already successful nations to leverage from their success to reach even greater heights. As a result, it has implemented regional policy objectives designed to concertina the extremes - as represented by divergent economic statistics - towards the average for Europe as a whole.
The ideal starting point for any assessment of regional policy in the EU is the European Commissioner with responsibility for Regional Development. The present incumbent, Monika Wulf-Mathies - one of the two German nominees - was able to crystallise out the relationship between the EU and its member states. "Neither the EU as an institution nor the European Commission seeks to replace individual government policies or national investment. The structural polices set in place within Europe usually co-finance national programmes and support activities which are focused on raising competitiveness.
"We aim to assist economic development through the improvement of national infrastructures. It is a pre-requisite, however, that member Governments attempt to do their best by maintaining sound financial and macro-economic policies, raising the competitiveness of their economies."
The participation with member countries which the Commissioner is describing may seem at odds with a scenario where the countries of Europe are competing head to head for inward investment as a vehicle for sustaining their own programmes of regional or national economic regeneration. Attracting investment either from other European countries or outside the EU can have its pitfalls, she maintains. "There is no guarantee that foreign investment will be sustainable or that the incentives will yield consistent results. There is evidence that it is not just subsidies and taxation which lead a company to opt for a particular location, but a broad range of factors."
Without dismissing the value of national inward investment campaigns, therefore, the European Commission has been keen to support policies which have a material effect on the infrastructure of the EU as a whole rather than a few isolated areas. The Commissioner describes EU policy as concentrating on indigenous regional forces, detecting weaknesses and strengths within each of the European regions and employing all of the economic factors which can be called into play. "The intention is to build an overall development strategy on the back of enterprises rooted in the regions rather than a course of action conceived externally, which might quickly change again. Our interest is in maintaining a consistent regional development strategy: when we invest in private firms, the focus is on strengthening SMEs rather than subsidising multinationals."
Dr Wulf-Dr Wulf-Mathies talks in terms of tailoring sustainable development programmes to individual regions. Essential to that policy is the qualification of the unemployed who can access jobs created in their region. A distinction is drawn between qualifying that workforce and simply training people in low-skilled factory jobs pertinent to a single employer. The nature of the employment on offer is no less important, therefore, than the number of jobs created. "The objective is to construct a diverse economic fabric so that a region does not become simply a remote production line for a manufacturer based in another country.
"Firms in each region need to have their own R&D resources and corporate infrastructure, and to establish relationships with other R&D capabilities and small firms in that area."
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