Abstract
This paper reviews the European Funding Programs impact on regional and economic development. The case study focuses on “Eastern Macedonia & Thrace” (EMTH) Region, a region in the nation of Greece. EMTH Region boasts a number of comparative advantages related to its strategic location, bordering Bulgaria on the North and Turkey on the East. In addition, EMTH Region is one of the regions in Greece with the lowest GDP per capita. Moreover, is a region of great importance with great existing transport infrastructure, widespread network of industrial areas, academic-R&D infrastructure & dynamics and many opportunities in the renewable energy sources. The purpose of the paper is the evaluation of the European Union Funding programs, highlighting and supporting the main target of these funding programs to force and enable a sustainable social and economic growth to the poorest European neighborhoods in order to achieve the average European Union prosperity. The framework analysis of the paper is based on an ex-post evaluation framework of the Regional Operational Programs that Greece and the “EMTH Region, have participated since Greece's entry into the European Union. The case study focused on some large European Support Regional Programs as the Mediterranean Integrated Programs (IMPs, 1986-1993), the 1st Community Support Framework (CSF I) (1989-1993), the 2nd Community Support Framework (CSF II) (1994-1999), the 3rd Community Support Framework (CSF) (2000 -2006) as well as the National Strategic Reference Frameworks (NSRF) (2007-2013) and (2014-2020). Valuable conclusions were derived, mainly regarding the absorption of the programs in the EMTH Region and regional and economic development of the case study region features during this period.
Highlights
Mobility as a Service (MaaS) is a new mobility concept gaining pace in many cities around the world
There is a great interest on its development and usage worldwide, only a small number of MaaS schemes have been successfully deployed, most of them being the outcome of demonstrations as part of research funded projects
MaaS has the potential to enhance the growing transition of the sharing economy, but it relies on public-private collaboration models to prevent maldevelopment
Summary
Mobility as a Service (MaaS) is a new mobility concept gaining pace in many cities around the world. There is a growing amount of literature which documents that MaaS is a promising mobility concept and it is expected to deliver several economic, societal, transport-related and environmental benefits. Three groups of stakeholders are expected to benefit from MaaS (Hietanen, 2014), namely: end users (travellers), businesses and the public sector. Travellers may benefit from seamless, easy-accessed, high-quality and value-for-money mobility. If both public and private transport operators/providers join a MaaS scheme, there is potential to provide customised mobility options and better accessibility to people with disabilities or reduced mobility. The public sector, with the implementation of MaaS may expect the creation of new jobs, resource allocation efficiency and improvement in transport system reliability. Reduced dependence on private vehicles has been documented as a potential benefit of MaaS (Cole, 2018)
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