Abstract
Europe 2020 strategy, the replacement of Lisbon strategy for jobs and growth, is an “umbrella strategy” for development of all policy areas in countries of European Union, EU setting concrete target aims to be reached until year 2020 that are ambitious than the previous Lisbon strategy. All other policies of European Commission, EC or Commission, are supporting the Europe 2020 strategy, including the EC’s regional. Nowadays, growth and development at a local level within EU is seen as part of Commission’s regional policy aimed at contributing to the “umbrella strategy”. Its purpose is to help to achieve the overall goals of Europe 2020 strategy. EC’s regional policy in point of fact is an investment policy meaning that largely it is being implemented through funding provision to the member states (of the EU). Aimed at reducing significant economic, social and territorial disparities between EU’s regions the regional policy supports job creation, competitiveness, economic growth, improved quality of life and sustainable development. The purpose of the paper is to evaluate the impact of Commission’s regional policy on spatial distribution of real estate investment on a local municipality level. Riga, the capital city of Latvia, the largest city within Baltic States and one of the largest in the Baltic Sea Region, BSR has been chosen for the case study reflecting the tendencies of a post-soviet city. The main task of the paper is to analyse the impact of EU funds invested on real estate investment made in a particular territory and thus to answer the question whether the regional policy goals are actually met at a local municipality level thus contributing to the literature aimed at evaluating EU’s strategy. Availability of different EU regional policy funding options at local municipality level are analyzed followed by critical assessment of locally available EU funding policy, overview and analysis of EU’s funding invested in different projects in City of Riga for two consecutive years following Latvia becoming a member state of EU in May 2004 (until the economic downturn in 2008) and the spatial distribution analysis of real estate investment made and correlation analysis of EU funding invested and real estate investment made in a particular territory allowing to draw the conclusions of the paper. Empirical analysis shows that the actual performance of the EU funding is in contrary with the EU regional policy and it is not possible to speak about cohesion in the case of Latvian capital in regard of EU funding invested. Although many EU funding options are available both for municipalities and companies, the results obtained show that regardless of the clear evidence that following Latvia becoming a member state of EU has increased the amount of real estate investment in the city of Riga, the spatial distribution of the real estate investment made does not have a clear linkage to EU funds invested in the particular territory (neighbourhood) although it is possible to argue that EU funding invested to some extent (depending on the amount and typology) may multiply the effect of possibility of real estate investment being invested in that particular territory due to the increased competitiveness of the territory. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5755/j01.eis.0.6.1482
Highlights
Be it European Union funding of the EU funding implemented within the period 2004-2006 or real estate investment, it is obvious that it tends to cluster, was attributed to improvement of research and education as observed in both cases in the Latvian capital
Either the infrastructure and could be named as smart, and an even investment itself is a factor for further investment, which larger part of the EU funding implemented in Riga was in the would be valuable to examine further, or it is the case of improvement of transport and engineering infrastructure and overall development as shown in this research and supported could be called inclusive, it is not yet possible to speak by other researchers
The analysis shows that all those neighbourhoods where could be attributed to that
Summary
Priority areas of Europe 2020 strategy are (1) smart raising of employment and modernisation of labour market growth meaning improvement of Union’s performance and education opportunities, and improvement of social and in education, research/innovation, and information and territorial cohesion within Union. The purpose of the paper is to evaluate the impact of European Union’s regional policy on a local level and to look for relations between Union’s regional policy and spatial distribution of real estate investment reflecting the well-being of the territory on a local municipality level. Data are structured and presented using mapping techniques including those of GIS cartography It is preceded by an overview and critical analysis of EU funding implementation policy in Latvia through the evaluation of existing planning documentation for the period. The conclusions might be of interest both for academics, as well as practitioners of regional policy
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