Dr Anthony Soares
Centre for Cross Border Studies39 Abbey Street,
Armagh BT61 [email protected]
The Border (Funding), Europe and Social Cohesion
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Socio-Economic Cohesion
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‘the economic crisis has increased the gap in GDP per capita between leading and
lagging regions in half of […] OECD countries’.
the ‘overall impact of the crisis on GDP and employment has been highest in the
three Baltic States, Ireland, Greece and Spain’ .
the ‘highest increase in the gap between the best 10% performing regions and the
bottom 10% regions, more than 8 percentage points, occurred in Ireland, Slovak
Republic and Denmark’.
in the Irish case ‘the increase of regional inequalities was due to a faster
worsening of the poorest regions compared to richest ones’.
Socio-Economic Cohesion
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Socio- Economic Cohesion
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Northern Ireland shares the lowest productivity rates
with Wales (16% and 15.4% below the UK average
respectively).
Northern Ireland ranks among the lowest in relation to
Gross Disposable Household Income.
Northern Ireland has the lowest gross median weekly
pay for males (£479, compared to £651 in London).
Socio-Economic Cohesion
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The creation of new businesses exceeded the closure
of existing businesses in all regions of the UK, except
for Northern Ireland and Wales.
In 2011 Northern Ireland had the highest proportion of
its population with no qualifications (21.7%).
Socio-Economic Cohesion
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László Andor: ‘the fact is that employment and social
conditions will not improve without sufficiently strong
public policies, further integration in the euro zone and
greater solidarity within and between states’.
Socio-Economic Cohesion
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Mr Noel Dorr: “There is the significant issue of what the
UK will do regarding its membership of the EU. Even the
lead-up to the proposed referendum could cause
difficulties because of the need to negotiate and the
question of how far we should go to accommodate the
UK’s remaining in the EU and worries that we might
diminish the fabric we have created in the Union”.
Socio-Economic Cohesion
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INTERREG programme considered to have ‘had a
significant impact across the eligible region’, and to
have ‘created high skilled, well paid jobs in the local
economy’, as well as having ‘facilitated excellent levels
of cross-border cooperation’.
Socio-Economic Cohesion
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‘without [PEACE III] funding it is questionable that
there would be any public funding to support the wide
range of local authority and civil society initiatives that
have made a real difference to social cohesion on the
island of Ireland’ .
Socio-Economic Cohesion
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Cross-Border Work on the Island of Ireland
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‘Promoting cross-border regional innovation policy is
difficult given a number of barriers, including those
created by policies themselves’.
InterTradeIreland plays ‘key role in implementing
cross-border innovation efforts’, and helps to ensure
that ‘Cross-border economic cooperation has acquired
a high level of legitimacy’.
Cross-Border Work on the Island of Ireland
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‘Cross-border flows are below their potential at
present in terms of trade, commuting, business
networks, access to public procurement, sales of
design services, students and tourists, collaboration
between research, technology and development (RTD)
centres and between these centres and industry’ .
Cross-Border Work on the Island of Ireland
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How is cross-border cooperation
activity to be sustained?
Cross-Border Work on the Island of Ireland