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Purpose The purpose of this paper is to describe through innovation system foresight and systemic innovation approach to address key systemic issues of European Union (EU) Overseas Countries and Territories (OCTs) concerning the sustainable development and economic resilience: the authors highlight the need for a systemic approach to innovation policy for the sustainable islands’ growth.Design/methodology/approach This research focuses on a multiple case study of selected OCTs, members of the Association of the OCTs. Specifically, this paper illustrates the foresight approach implemented in six OCTs in the context of the Territorial Strategies for Innovation project funded by the 10th European Development Fund.Findings The focus is on innovation system foresight and systemic innovation: the authors argue that key innovation elements of the individual OCTs can be used as crucial components of an emerging innovation system while this specific type of foresight can assist the governments of respective OCTs in the selection and design of specific instruments in relation to the formulation of their innovation strategies and policies.Originality/value This paper is based on work undertaken by the Territorial Strategies for Innovation project team during a three-year period dedicated to supporting the governments of OCTs both in defining and in implementing their innovation strategies. Its main contribution is to develop the concept of innovation system foresight and systemic innovation for the OCTs. The work presented here is considered to be of value by highlighting specific innovation elements for achieving sustainable and inclusive growth in OCTs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the attempt of sustainable development assessment for one of the poorest regions of the European Union (EU), Lublin Voivodeship in Poland, during its first decade in the EU, i.e. 2004-2013. Our analyses, performed for all pillars of sustainability: social, economic and environmental-technical, were based on sustainable development indicators (SDIs). The set of 21 sustainable development indicators, based on freely available statistical data, was proposed in this paper. The SDIs for Lublin Voivodeship were compared to values for Poland and the European Union. The special attention was put to assessment of sustainable development diversification between urbanized and rural areas of Poland and Lublin province. Our analyses showed than both, Poland and Lublin Voivodeship, clearly developed during the last decade but their sustainable development is still endangered and slowed down by several causes. Moreover, the value of most tested sustainability indicators was significantly below the European mean. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Processes of regionalization are mainly conceived as bottom-up processes of political and economic mobilization—often even as counter-movements to alienating forces of globalization. In marked contrast to this conventional view, this paper argues that sub-national regions are constitutively shaped by and embedded in a wider social context. This external institutional context encourages the ‘reflexive resurgence’ and ‘staging’ of regional identities in terms of most contemporary notions of development, such as innovation, cohesion, competitiveness, sustainability, and so forth. Starting from a macro-phenomenological research perspective (in the tradition of the world society theory proposed by John W. Meyer and colleagues) this paper sketches six major analytical perspectives to account for the massive ‘world-cultural’ regional mobilization currently seen in Europe. It is emphasized that relatively universal (‘world-cultural’) models and practices of regional mobilization are crucial in determining the current shape of European regions. This has particularly been encouraged by the EU Cohesion Policy, which specifies, reinforces and accelerates the diffusion of highly rationalized models of regional development throughout EU territory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Analyzing of the effects and the determinants of the energy paradigm changes on influencing the economic growth in European Union starts from the assumption that the economy is highly dependent of energy consumption in achieving of the economic growth and welfare for population. Consequently, the changes in the energy paradigm imply significant transformations in the production structures and their evolution. The aim of the paper is to present and evaluate the effects and determinants of the energy paradigm changes on assuring economic growth in European Union, by using the panel data approach and its subsequent techniques. In this respect, there was considered the evolution of nine economic variables across 30 countries, representing the EU member States during the examined period, plus Iceland and Norway, in order to revile direct and irrefutable connections among these variables in shaping the new energetic paradigm in European space. The results obtained during the research confirm that all nine variables are determinant and significant elements in shaping a new and proactive energy policy and it undoubtedly contribute in achieving of the sustainable economic development [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To maintain the growth rate and insure the secure and sustainable development of economies, EU countries have to come up with and manage a new source of growth - intangible resources. The intangible resources are relatively a new concept analyzed in scientific literature. A diverse, multi-angle and complex nature of intangible resources can be treated as a new factor in production function. In the knowledge based economy, creativity, generation of knowledge and transmission of it must interact with each other and be combined with entrepreneurship skills. Only interaction between these three key intangible resources could ensure the transition of economy to a new stage of economic development. The purpose of the research paper is to reveal econometrical relationship between intangible resources and its impact on economy in the EU. As a result of analysis, the theoretical framework to evaluate intangible resources has been provided and the accumulation level of intangible resources in EU countries has been estimated. The econometrical relationship suggests the intangible resources have a very important impact on GDP accumulated level. The findings reveal that highest level of intangible resources is observed in Finland, Sweden, Germany, Denmark and Luxembourg. The lowest rate of intangible resources is observed in Cyprus, Romania, Poland, Bulgaria, Lithuania, Latvia and Greece. The conducted research also revealed that there is a strong statistical relationship between input and output of intangible resources. The constructed econometrical model suggests that the modern economic growth much depends on the level of accumulated intangible resources in the country. The change of estimated composite indicator of intangible resources by 1% influences the change of GDP by 0.954% [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2010, EU adopted a new growth strategy which includes three growth priorities and five headline targets to be reached by 2020. The aim of this paper is to investigate the current performance of the EU member and candidate states in achieving these growth priorities and the overall strategy target by allocating the headline targets into the priorities and the priorities into the strategy by the use of a composite indicator methodology. The paper determines how far away each member and candidate state is from the targeted levels of the priorities and the strategy by making a distinction between EU 15 and relatively new member states as well. The developed composite indices enable the observation of the performances of the member and candidate states in a single indicator for the overall strategy and each growth priority. The results of the strategy index and three growth priority indices show that Nordic states possess the highest index scores already having reached many of the targets; many new member states performed as good as EU 15 and some EU 15 states are placed at the bottom of the ranking with quite poor performance in reaching the EU 2020 strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Rome Report, published in 1972, drew attention on the contradiction between unlimited growth and consumption in relation to the limited resources of the earth. The report had a powerful impact on the concept of economic development, it contributed to the relocation of the concept of needs within the limits of the thinking that unidirectional development which produces only to assure economic growth in the long run should not affect life on earth. The paper presents the evolution of the concept of sustainable development, which militates for the continuous improvement of quality of life, taking into account the rational and efficient use of resources, how it managed to become, in a relatively short period, the concern of the entire world and why it becomes the principle that lays at the basis of all policies. The paper analyses the relationship between the strategy of sustainable development of EU and the Lisbon Agenda. It also shows that although EU established that sustainable development is the principle on which all European policies are based, and practically competition dominates the political agenda, in fact, the two strategies reinforce each other. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With this paper we depict a typology of regions, capturing the diversity of regional innovation systems (RISs) across the EU-25. Following the RIS literature, we select twenty-one variables related to the ability of a region to generate and absorb knowledge, and its capacity to transform research and development into innovation and economic growth. On the basis of the results of principal components and cluster analyses, we identify seven types of RIS where the 186 regions group together according to their sectoral specialisation, technological and economic capacity, and performance. By allowing us to identify similar and more advanced regions, the paper facilitates comparisons and benchmarking between similar regions, thus enabling more accurate policy learning. For each group a number of policy recommendations are suggested, contingent on their local specific characteristics. In short, the contribution of this paper is twofold. Firstly, it provides the first RIS typology for the EU-25 regions completed using a large number of variables. Secondly, the conclusions obtained from the analysis may be used to lead policy makers' actions in the field of regional innovation policy in the EU. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper assesses three sustainable development strategies -- the European Union's Sustainable Development Strategy in its revised version, the Mediterranean Strategy for Sustainable Development and Slovenia's Development Strategy -- according to the level of sustainability these strategies provide. Deriving from three diverse sustainable development regimes, selected strategies are scrutinised for the presence of the five general principles of effective sustainable development strategies promoted by the United Nations and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. Building on George and Kirkpatrick's (2006) framework for analysis, we concentrate on principles of strategic planning and sustainable development, and a coordinated set of measures to ensure their implementation. The results reveal that the major differences between the assessed strategies are present in the sophistication of the theoretical bases and the integration of three main pillars of sustainable development (i.e. environmental, economic and social). In general, the assessed strategies reflect a high degree of inclusiveness of a variety of interests. However, there is a common weakness among them in terms of implementation, be it in the provision of adequate resources, the guarantee of adequate implementing capacity of the institutions designated for implementation or the precise definition of the institutional framework responsible for the implementation of the strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a new index to quantify, measure and monitor the progress towards the objectives of the Europe 2020 strategy. This index is based on a set of relevant, accepted, credible, easy to monitor and robust indicators presented by the European Commission at the time the strategy was launched. The internal analysis of the index shows that the Smart and the Inclusive growth dimensions of the strategy are strictly correlated and that the trade-offs between each of these two dimensions and the Sustainable one exist but are decreasing, suggesting that a change towards more sustainable models of development is occurring in Europe. The external analysis of the index shows that it can be a valid measure to assess the overall competitiveness of countries and that the most critical factors for this strategy to be successful are good governance and social capital. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The inherent tension between regional equality and economic growth (efficiency) is recently much debated in the context of place based development policy and agglomeration in the European Union. A general conclusion reached in the literature is that a policy targeted at regional equality may be harmful for economic growth. Such policy therefore should be transformed in such a way that it also promotes the mobility of both people and firms and hence facilitates the possibilities of increased agglomeration. Recent insights from economic theories suggest that agglomeration externalities are not taken into account in the migration decision of firms and people, causing the dynamic urbanisation processes to not necessarily result in a (social) welfare optimum. This is even more so if other welfare effects than GDP and product variety are taken into account. Regional economic development is not sustainable if the dynamic urbanisation processes stemming from agglomeration economies do not lead to a welfare optimum. In this paper we assess the possibility of a non-sustainable regional development path. We conclude that strong additional negative externalities of growing large agglomerations are harder to prove than negative externalities of small agglomerations becoming smaller. Moreover, the size of short run negative effects that will stimulate the migration of people has not been adequately assessed. The European Union should therefore be careful in interpreting place-based costs and benefits of growing, large agglomerations at the detriment of small regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

European governments are tending to perceive cities as sites of renewed economic dynamism and physical renaissance, and as places that can help to resolve social and environmental challenges. The paper presents three propositions for why the fortunes of cities in advanced economies may have improved. It then offers evidence from across Western Europe to assess whether they have done so, both in comparison with their past trajectories and in relation to smaller urban and rural areas. One finding is that cities in aggregate have experienced continued prosperity rather than decline and revival or accelerated growth. Another is that their overall position relative to smaller settlements does not seem to have changed greatly. Looking in more detail, however, there is more evidence of resurgence, as well as the opposite. National variations seem important and cities in Finland, Sweden, Ireland, Britain and Spain show signs of substantial economic improvement over the last decade. In contrast, cities in Germany have experienced a marked slowdown, albeit from a position of comparative prosperity at the outset. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite existing policies of regional development and cohesion at the national and the EU level, economic regional inequalities or disparities stay relatively high or decrease too slowly. In this context, policies to reduce economic regional disparities in the European Union are a constant concern both for policy-makers and for theoretical and empirical research because of the strong impact on sustainable development in general. In this study we combine elements of theoretical and policy discussions with the empirical assessment of economic regional development in the European Union in order to identify the state of regional disparities, what factors are favouring unbalanced growth in different regions of the EU and to find an appropriate theoretical setting to understand, explain and reduce with regional inequality in the EU. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]