Regional Disparities and Cohesion (2007) |
| What strategies for the Future? |
| Client: |
European Parliament, DG for Internal Policies of the Union (Brussels, Strasbourg) |
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The main objective of this study is to provide the Committee on Regional Development with a critical and detailed analysis of intra-regional disparities in Member States of the EU and between Member States, by analysing the situation in 2005 as well as the regional development at national, regional and local levels since 1988 for selected indicators (i.e. GDP, unemployment, population, infrastructure, public services and utilities, urban density, education). The study is also expected to seek to establish what strategies could be developed for the future, in order to adequately address intra-regional disparities in the twelve Cohesion countries, as well as in Bulgaria and Romania. In that, the study should also indicate how Structural Policy has contributed to attaining the objective of harmonious development of all regions and the reduction of intraregional disparities, and what the role of agglomeration effects at EU level is in this process.
Within the project team, RRG is concerned with the analysis of the disparities in access to infrastructure and public services. RRG is responsible for the development of the appropriate methodology, the upgrading of related GIS-databases, analysis of the situation at different spatial scales (raster level, NUTS-0, NUTS-2 and NUTS-3 levels, as well as the production of maps, figures, tables and their associated comments and explanations. In detail, RRG is supposed to provide travel time maps using point and network data for EU27+2 (incl. Norway and Switzerland) for the following public infrastructures: airports, motorways/motorway ramps, railway stations, universities, and hospitals. In a first step the various travel time maps will be produced at raster level (based on a 2x2 km grid for the whole of Europe), in order to illustrate and analyse possible intra-regional disparities and accessibility patterns; afterwards the raster level results will be aggregated and analysed to various NUTS levels to illustrate inter-regional disparities in the access to services. Lastly, RRG is also responsible for a literature review on access to water, energy and telecommunication infrastructures and their development over the last decade.
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