The EU needs to boost regions' resilience against crises to guarantee a functioning Single Market

EU's local and regional leaders recall that their cities and regions have been unevenly hit by recent crises, such as the Covid-19 pandemic and Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine. In an opinion drafted by Ilpo Heltimoinen (FI/ECR), Member of Lappeenranta City Council, the European Committee of the Regions (CoR) calls on the new European Commission to take action to strengthen the economic resilience of regions, as it impacts decisively their competitiveness and the functioning of the Single Market. The opinion was adopted at the CoR plenary session on 8 October. 

The regions of Eastern Finland and the Baltic States, in particular, have suffered significantly from the stagnation of trade and tourism with Russia, while other regions are particularly impacted by migration, the consequences of climate change or demographic trends. Cities and regions highlight the strong interlink between economic competitiveness and resilience and call for increased efforts to secure regional value chains. They underline the importance of strong external border regions for the security and resilience of the European Union and call for future competition and cohesion policies to take this into account.  

"While I welcome that competitiveness is high on the agenda of the next legislative mandate, following the economic shocks of recent years the Commission should also strengthen economic resilience alongside competitiveness, while paying particular attention to regional specificities. For example, my region South Karelia, located at the Russian border, used to receive considerable economic benefits from trade and tourism with Russia, but the invasion of Ukraine and the consequent sanctions against Russia have led to significant economic and security challenges for our region,” says rapporteur Ilpo Heltimoinen, city councilor from Lappeenranta which is located just 20 kilometers from the Russian border. 

Local and regional leaders are calling the EU to proactively target support to strengthen the resilience of regions most vulnerable to future economic shocks. The Commission should also consider the possibility of introducing a ‘do no harm to resilience’ principle in EU decision-making to ensure that the socio-economic resilience of EU regions is taken into account. 

The opinion highlights the potential of the green and digital transitions for many regions. At the same time, adopting the principle of technological neutrality should enable a variety of different solutions while taking into account the different circumstances in the EU’s regions to avoid undermining their economic diversification and resilience. The Committee stresses the potential of renewable energies and nuclear energy to increase the EU's energy resilience and independence and to achieve the targets for reducing carbon emissions. 

“Like other eastern border regions with Russia or Belarus, our region cannot build wind energy as it conflicts with military radar operations. Such handicaps must be considered in EU policymaking and the EU must support regions like South Karelia in preparing for and recovering from economic shocks due to their vulnerable geopolitical location,” Heltimoinen continues. 

Affordable and secure energy production, access to quality services and investments in digital infrastructure and transport connections, research, education and skills are key elements for resilience. The economic diversification of EU regions plays a key role in resilience-building efforts. The Committee stresses the crucial role of SMEs in diversifying regional economies and supply chains, as dependence on a limited number of large employers increases the vulnerability to economic shocks in the event of divestment. The Commission should therefore pay particular attention to strengthening the framework conditions for SMEs and reducing the regulatory burden.  

Finally, the Committee considers that is important to have harmonised data on economic resilience from all regions in order to design appropriate support instruments for regions and to develop effective criteria to strengthen economic resilience at regional level. Therefore, the regional resilience scoreboards developed by the EU’s joint research efforts should be further refined and considered in the context of the European Semester. 

More information: 

On 9 October, high-level representatives from Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland participated in a high-level session called Roulette of Opportunities: Potential of Regions Bordering Aggressor Countries, that took place in the context of the European Week of Regions and Cities 2024. Participants discussed their views on how the emerging challenges and constantly changing environment could be curbed, what does it take for people and businesses being a neighbour of hostile regime, how to maintain economic growth and resilience and sustain regions' contribution to European prosperity. 

 Contacts: 

Lauri Ouvinen
Tel. +32 473536887
lauri.ouvinen@cor.europa.eu