Councillor John Sheehan:

I thank the Chairman. On behalf of the Irish Delegation to the Committee of the Regions, the CoR, may I thank the committee for inviting us to make this presentation which follows up on related appearances and submissions by our members earlier this year. We wish to record our appreciation for the interest that this committee has shown in our work. I would like to specifically thank the Chairman. This is about the fourth time he has met the Committee of the Regions in the past 12 months and it shows his level of interest in us. I would like to record the apologies of my colleagues unable to be present today. I am sharing this introduction with my colleague, Councillor Maria Byrne from Limerick.

We in the Irish CoR Delegation see this mid-term review of the Europe 2020 strategy as an opportunity to take a more coherent approach to its delivery, not just at EU and member state levels but also at local and regional levels. The Irish delegation considers that the Europe 2020 strategy has the potential to improve the policy-making process both in Ireland and across the EU as it provides a long-term policy framework to address weaknesses in economic performance and promote investment in smart, sustainable and inclusive growth. In short, we welcome the process of target setting, co-ordination of policy and assessment, but we have concerns as to how this is implemented.

The assessment by the European Commission of progress in reaching the strategy objectives shows a very mixed picture, in terms of a growing gap between the best and least well performing member states and the widening gap between regions within member states. We suggest that the unsatisfactory rate of progress towards the Europe 2020 targets is not only due to the economic crisis but also to some shortcomings in the strategy itself. These shortcomings need to be addressed during the current mid-term assessment and that is why we are here today.

In our submission, we have included statistics which show some of the widening regional gaps in Ireland, which in our view prompt the need for a re-think as to whether a ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach is best. Therefore, we make two simple proposals. First, we suggest that Europe 2020 is a strategy in need of a territorial dimension, rather than it being a purely sectoral strategy. Second, the strategy needs a stronger partnership approach in the programming, implementation and assessment phases.

In calling for a territorial dimension to the Europe 2020 strategy, we in the CoR have been aware that pursuing a strategy that has a sectoral focus only, with little or no consideration of its impact other than the achievement of purely national targets, is something which is going to result in some regions doing well and others less so. This was also a fundamental weakness of the previous Lisbon strategy and the assessment by the European Commission of the current strategy supports this view.

Some member states have made attempts to give a spatial aspect to their sectoral targets under the Europe 2020 Strategy through their national reform programmes. Earlier this year, 16 of the country-specific recommendations from the European Commission also made explicit reference to the spatial dimension and, as appropriate, made recommendations to address regional disparities between and within member states. We would be very strong on regional disparities.

We are heartened that the European Commission now recognises that the growing regional inequalities require specific attention. However, we suggest that this territorial dimension needs to be specifically built into the Europe 2020 strategy to give it a compulsory aspect and we consider that the mid-term review provides an opportunity to do this.

While the country-specific recommendations for Ireland did not include any recommendation on regional disparities, the strong view of our delegation is that it should have, and we suggest that the European Commission must address the issue of regional disparities in all country specific recommendations after this mid-term review. We ask that the joint committee also give consideration to the regional disparity issue when it gets an opportunity to consider the draft country specific recommendations in the House.

As we indicated in previous submissions, both to this committee and to the Department of the Taoiseach, Ireland's national reform programme is spatially blind and the concept of balanced regional development, which seems to have disappeared as a national policy objective. The one-size-fits-all approach has reinforced the regional development gaps within the State and as the committee will see from the tables on pages 5 and 10 of the submission the statistics on regional GDP illustrate the different impacts that the regions have experienced, both before and as a result of the economic crisis. The BMW region was one of the EU regions with the highest levels of GDP decline and has a number of structural weaknesses, which require more tailored interventions. That said, the gap in GDP levels between NUTS III regions is even more pronounced, with the south east, midlands and Border lagging behind. Broadband penetration is one example in that regard.

To strengthen our case for a regional dimension, we have analysed the data that has been used by the European Commission in the production of its sixth cohesion report, which was published in July, and have included some of this in the appendix to our submission to demonstrate the clear regional differences that exist across the island of Ireland. When we call for a territorial dimension to the Europe 2020 strategy, what we are really saying is that there needs to be a clear recognition of the key regional challenges facing Ireland and member states across the EU, and the specific competitiveness challenges facing the weaker regions in meeting Europe 2020 targets; there needs to be a set of regional macroeconomic indicators to describe the differing territorial realities across the Irish region; and there needs to be some regional targets to help galvanise a coherent response and drive implementation.

This leads onto the second proposal, which is our call for a stronger partnership approach in all aspects of the Europe 2020 strategy. I will hand over to my colleague, Councillor Maria Byrne, to elaborate on this.