Dr Anthony Soares

Centre for Cross Border Studies39 Abbey Street,

Armagh BT61 7EBa.soares@qub.ac.uk

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