Report of the EADI Seminar 14th April 2000 at the University of Ljubljana

Regional policies in the EU associated Central and Eastern European countries has in the recent years attracted high attention in the enlargement process. The main reason for this is the realistic assumption that after the accession the main channel to foster the economic catch-up process of the CEE countries will be the structural and cohesion policies of the EU. The main objective of the EADI seminar which was organised by the Institute for Economic Research and funded by Slovenian Ministry for Economic Relations and Development was to give an overview of the present situation and -state-of the-art” of the regional development in the selected Central European post-communist countries. The seminar was attended by 60 participants mainly scholars and students from Ljubljana University and representatives of Slovenian public administration.

After the introductory speeches (given by Slovenian minister for European Affairs Igor Bavèar and the representative of European Commission Mr.Vincent Piket) the EADI president Ms. Sheila Page presented an overview of EU policies to different regional integrations: MERCOSUR, SACU (of high importance from the standpoint of economic linkages), CARICOM, ASEAN, Andean CACM, NAFTA, SADC, LAIA, FTAA and Apec (of middle importance from the standpoint of trade and capital flows). The report of Peter Stanovnik (Ljubljana Institute for Economic Research) pointed out the current problems of regional development and the importance of new institution building in Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovenia.

Igor Strmšnik from the Slovenian negotiating team focused on the problems of Slovenian regional policy. He stressed the necessity of forming 2 regional units at the NUTS-2 level and the preparation of new strategy of economic development, the National development plan for the period 2000 -2006 and preparatory programme for structural funds for the Republic of Slovenia.

Prof. Helen O'Neill (University College Dublin) presented the success story of Ireland's economic transition after EU accession. The roles of EU regional funds and other factors (government policies, FDI inflows, business enterprise restructuring and building of social capital) showed to be very important for the Irish economic development.

Michaela Brizova (Czech Ministry for Regional Development) presented a paper about the EU dimension of regional policy in Czech Republic. There were exposed the conceptual foundations for regional development and prerequisites of a working and effective regional policy process. Knut Koschatzky (Fraunhofer Institute - Karlsruhe) reported about the East German experience in supporting innovation and regional development through Inno Regio initiative launched by the German Federal Government and co-financed by EU. The main objectives of the Inno Regio (-Innovative Impulse für die Region-) are improvement of employment situation, generation of endogenous resources, fostering of regional networks and development of new co-operation beyond administrative borders.

Sanja Malekoviæ (Institute for International Relations - Zagreb) argued for new approach in Croatian regional development based on counties' entities, endogenous human resources, decentralization and public-private partnerships. Ivo Piry, the head of Slovenian National Agency for Regional development, discussed about the main tasks of newly established agency: the drafting and preparation of the regional development plan, advising the pre-CSF programme committee and negotiating with the European Commission for the adoption of the CSF and operational programmes. The seminar ended with a presentation of the Slovenian law on promoting balanced regional development by Damjan Kava (Institute for Economic Research, Ljubljana).