经济危机时期欧盟提升凝聚力政策的依据与设计

Rationale and Design of EU Cohesion Policies in a Period of Crisis

本文讨论了在经济深度衰退时期,提升欧盟凝聚力政策的依据与合理设计。本文包括两个主题:第一个主题是经济衰退时期欧盟区域政策的依据,虽然它们似乎没有短期需求政策那么紧迫和切实可行。另外,正如文中认为的,这场危机对欧盟许多国家施加了相当大的压力,在最坏的情况下甚至可能危及20年来欧盟在扩张和提升凝聚力方面所做的努力。正在发生的危机影响着区域间的融合趋势,这与欧盟议定的一些新的货币和财政政策工具有密切关系,紧缩措施对许多国家特别是南欧施加了很大的压力。在这种情况下,区域政策对于重新平衡其空间效应至关重要。第二个主题是关于如何最合理地设计提升凝聚力政策,它应建立在批判性吸收过去十年激烈的政策讨论的基础上。本文所要表达的理论观点是,成功的策略既不是重视发展好的地区,寻求效率最高,也不是只关注落后地区,寻求平等,而是重视所有地区的发展潜力,这些发展潜力有其地缘资本表征——物质资本、人力资本、认知资本、社会和关系资本。政策应针对每个地区的特点,如竞争优势和需求,吸引所有可能的投资,并扩大现有的优势。这一途径同时避免了集中开发的社会和经济成本,能够保证竞争力和凝聚力的最高回报。本文最后在之前理论和实证研究的基础上,为欧盟新成员国如何应对其面临的具体问题提出了建议。

The paper reflects on justifications for,and the proper design of,cohesion policiesin a period of deep economic recession.In particular,the paper tackles two important topics.The first concerns the justification for EU regional policies in a period of economic downturn,since they may seem less urgent and appropriate than short term demand policies.Instead,as the paper argues,the crisis exerts considerable pressure on several EU countries,and may even,in the worst case,jeopardize two decades of efforts towards EU enlargement and cohesion.In this circumstance,regional policies are required to rebalance the spatial effects that the ongoing crisis is determining on interregional convergence trends,in strict relationship with some new monetary and fiscal policy tools agreed at the EU level lifting the pressure that present austerity measures are exerting on many,mainly Southern,European countries.The second topic relates to the most appropriate design that cohesion policies should follow,building in a critical way on the results of the robust policy debate of the last decade.The message that the paper conveys from a conceptual point of view is that the winning strategy is neither to focus on champion places and regions,in search of the highest efficiency,nor on lagging areas only,in search of equity,but on the development potential of all places,represented by its territorial capital-material,human,cognitive,social and relational.Policies should be tailored on each region’s specificities,competitive advantage and needs,engaging all possible assets and enlarging existing excellences.This pathway simultaneously avoids thesocial and economic costs of a concentrated development and is able to guarantee the highest returns in terms of both competitiveness and cohesion.The paper concludes by proposing suggestions on how to respond to the specific and particular challenges that the New Member countries of the EU are now facing,on the basis of the previous conceptual and empirical evidence.