Regional Policy-Making in Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia
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Martin Brusis (ed.): |
PDF-Downloads:Executive Summary
Regional development has attracted increasing attention in the enlargement
process of the EU because the main channel to support the economic convergence
of the Central and East European Countries after their accession will
be the structural policy of the EU which is focused on regional development
and regional actors. To the extent that the applicant countries are able
to institutionalise a working regional development policy framework, they
will be able to optimise the available EU assistance in order to accelerate
their economic catch-up process. This study maps the development of regional
policy institutions, regional disparities and exemplary initiatives of
capacity building in regions of six applicant countries: Bulgaria, the
Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia. The study consists
of detailed case studies on the six countries written by domestic experts
on regional policy and EU integration, an introduction comparing national
policy patterns, and a documentation of the assessments made by the European
Commission on regional policy and cohesion in the latest progress report
on the applicant countries, published in October 1999.
The country studies start by analysing how institutional arrangements
for regional policy-making emerged in the context of a post-socialist
society and of historic legacies left by the state socialist system of
the past. This context is specific because governments and those political
and economic actors participating in regional development are confronted
with a dual transition. First, instruments, procedures and operational
logics of regional policy need to be adapted from a state socialist economic
environment to a market economy where actors decide autonomously according
to their cost-benefit expectations. Second, the main objective and rationale
of regional policy need to be changed from an equalisation between regions
with different levels of development or wealth to the support of "endogenous"
capacities, i.e. the regions' given endowment of economic, social and
human capital. The second transition has been at the centre of recent
debates on regional policy in the OECD countries, characterising and guiding
the change in the policy approaches of Western governments. The postsocialist
countries were not only faced with the first transition, in other words:
to overcome the institutional and mental legacies of state socialist regional
planning - but they are also under pressure to achieve the policy change
Western governments have embarked upon.
The six country studies describe how policy concepts, legal foundations
and institutional arrangements on the central and regional level have
changed since the outset of economic and political transition. Although
the national paths of institution building vary considerably, most countries
have undergone phases when regional policy was focused on managing regional
labour market and economic crises which were caused by the closure or
labour-shedding of large-scale state socialist enterprises dominating
regional economies. Since 1998, in some countries even earlier, governments
have begun to adapt their institutional framework to the requirements
of accession to the EU and of adopting the structural policy acquis of
the EU.
The country studies also give overviews on regional policy expenditure,
programmes and instruments, depicting the differing national policy mixes
and the relevance regional development has attained in each country. With
respect to the share of regional development expenditure relative to the
GDP, the diversification of regional development programmes and the status
of regional policy in the government, Estonia and Hungary have institutionalised
regional policy earlier and to a greater extent than the other countries
of this study. The introduction tries to explain this difference with
the issue linkages regional policy advocates have been able to use in
both countries, but which were not available in the political constellation
of the other countries.
All studies provide data on the extent of regional economic disparities
in their respective country, measured in the divergence of GDP per capita,
unemployment rates, investment inflows, density of firms and entrepreneurs
and other indicators or composed indices. The Czech and the Polish country
studies contain illustrative chapters analysing the regional development
efforts undertaken by regional actors in Northern Moravia/Silesia, Southern
Moravia, Wielkopolska and Upper Silesia. In the Estonian and Hungarian
studies the impact of regional development programmes is evaluated in
detail, thus indicating the need for, and extent of, policy learning.
All the studies are policy-oriented in the sense that they go beyond a
mere analysis and propose policy reforms in order to improve the institutional,
legal and financial basis as well as the inter-organisational coordination
required for effective and efficient regional development policies.
In addition, the studies give detailed accounts of each country's reform
measures aimed at adopting elements of a regional development policy that
facilitates the management of the Structural Funds of the EU. As a consequence
of the accession preparation requirements, all applicant countries will
have to establish a participation of regional authorities and economic
actors in the formulation and implementation of regional development policy.
Regions compatible with the territorial classification system of the EU
(NUTS) need to be created, and expenditure on regional development will
grow, covering also activities beyond business development or labour market
policy. In this respect, the country studies highlight a work which is
still very much in a state of flux.
The different progress made by the countries in establishing and "europeanising"
their regional development policies suggests that general political stability
is an important precondition of successful institution building. If cooperative
relations among economic, social and political actors are a generally
accepted objective of economic policy, concepts of "modern", coordination-intensive
regional policy are less difficult to implement. As long as it does not
lead to polarised political constellations and debates, regional problem
awareness and activity can not only support institution building but is
also a necessary prerequisite to achieve a real decentralisation of regional
policy making. Finally, in order to build working regional development
institutions, reformers perhaps mostly need plausible, convincing concepts
that are linked with more general political objectives and principles,
attractive foreign models and a committed coalition of political actors.
The study is part of a project on the integration of Central and East
European countries into the European Union, which is jointly managed by
the Bertelsmann Foundation and Bertelsmann Group for Policy Research at
the Center for Applied Policy Research. The country studies were compiled
by the following partner institutes and their authors:
Economic Policy Institute, Sofia;
Institute of International Relations, Prague;
Institute for Future Studies, Tallinn;
Institute for World Economics, Budapest;
European Centre for Regional Development, Warsaw;
M.E.S.A.10 Institute for Economic and Social Analyses, Bratislava.
The study can be ordered through: Dr.
Martin Brusis