Smart Specialisation and Resilience: How Future-Proof are European Regions?

Mirko Kruse, Melanie Mesloh and Jan Wedemeier ()
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Mirko Kruse: Hamburg Institute of International Economics, Germany
Melanie Mesloh: Hamburg Institute of International Economics, Germany

Romanian Journal of Regional Science, 2022, vol. 16, issue 1, 34-50

Abstract: The European Union member states face a new increase of inequality. Thereby, decreasing regional inequality among its regions is one of the central political aims of the European Union and is addressed in almost all European development strategies. It seems that the results of the strategies in terms of cohesion are ambiguous and certain targets have been missed. More dramatically, the COVID-19 pandemic hit the European countries differently. It is to be assumed that the disparities among European regions tend to increase again, not only between the different directions, but also between core and peripheral regions within countries. The article at hand aims to contribute to the ongoing discussion by showing that not only recent development trends indicate a dysfunctional convergence process but also the economic specialisation can become a significant disadvantage for certain regions considering current global megatrends that might lead to a conservation of existing disparity patterns. The article therefore arguments that European Structural Policy needs to recognise the shortcomings of the past and calls for a regional policy that focuses on endogenous growth potential in regions rather than financial transfer alone. Smart Specialisation could be an instrument to develop and push such endogenous growth potential.

Keywords: European Cohesion; Regional Convergence; Innovation; Resilience; Smart Specialisation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O3 O31 O52 R1 R11 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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