Economic Challenges of Lagging Regions

The aim of this project is to deepen understanding of the factors limiting investment, growth and convergence in the lagging regions of the EU, and which policy measures could be taken to overcome these limitations and fully exploit the lagging regions’ development potential.This study will assess the degree to which these regions are held back by the fiscal and macroeconomic conditions under which they operate, as well as the primary requirements of these regions in terms of the need for structural reforms.

The Future of Manufacturing in Europe

This project explores scenarios for future developments in European manufacturing employment in the context of globalisation and rapid technological change. The key objective is to consider whether a revival of manufacturing could or should be based on foreign led growth or on a co-ordinated expansion of internal demand, which might have very different implications for the distribution of overall employment (i.e. both within and outside manufacturing) across Member States. A further objective is to gain a deeper understanding of how far recent technological and other developments are changing methods of production and the organisation and location of manufacturing activities.

Study on “Monitoring Sectoral Employment”

The objective of the study is to provide a systematic analysis of the interdependencies and linkages between the sectors, their sensitivity to cyclical variations and measures, and sector strategies which could reinforce the employment dimension of the crisis exit and EU 2020 strategy.

Analysis of the Main Factors of Regional Growth: An in-depth study of the best and worst performing European regions

The primary aim of the study is to deepen understanding of economic development in the EU regions through identifying the regions that have performed well and those that have performed poorly over recent years, to analyse the factors underlying these differences in performance by econometric means as well as through case studies of selected regions and to draw our the policy implications.

Ex post evaluation of cohesion policy programmes 2000-2006 co-financed by the European Fund for Regional Development (Objective 1 and 2); Work Package 1: coordination, analysis and synthesis

The overall aim of the project is to coordinate the various studies being undertaken to assess the effects of cohesion policy over the period 2000-2006, to produce summary analyses of regional developments in all the Member States and to provide support to DG Regional Policy in carrying out the evaluation.