The survey, conducted by the Lisbon Monitoring Platform on behalf of the Committee of the Regions (CoR), investigated how the European Economic Recovery Plan (EERP) is being implemented on the ground, as perceived by the EU local and regional authorities.
CoR officials were quick to stress that while the survey – featuring responses from over 70 EU regions and cities - should not be seen to give the overall EU picture, its findings nevertheless shed light onto main trends reflecting the current difficulties faced by regions and cities.
Overall, it seems that local and regional authorities have been able to access EU 'crisis' money quickly, using structural funds in an "accelerated way" as part of the EERP. Indeed, almost all the authorities who responded to the survey (85%) said they had introduced their own anti-crisis measures, usually to combat rising unemployment through increased social welfare spending and support for SMEs.
The European Social Fund (ESF) and the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) were the main vehicles for taking these steps.
More concerted actions needed on access to credit
However, despite these remedial steps, there is a clear sense that there is little or no coordination between regions, that they "remain on their own," in the words of one Lisbon Monitoring Platform team member contacted by EurActiv.
"They feel they're alone," he said, especially when faced with particular problems that go beyond their competences – with the failure of the banking system and the inability of SMEs to access credit singled out as areas where coordinated efforts would have provided an added value.
Without concerted action, the general EERP policies do not adapt well to specific situations and communicating measures to the citizens is more difficult, authorities said. In a nutshell, the survey reveals that citizens do not know about the EERP measures, or when they are aware of its existence, they do not see them on the ground.
This is not a specific shortcoming of the EERP, rather confirmation of an existing problem, providing further evidence of the same flaw outlined in the review of the Lisbon Strategy: a lack of multi-level governance, said the expert.
Perceptions of the economic and employment outlook for 2010 in European regions are very pessimistic, the survey findings conclude.
