Transnational meeting GOUV'AIRNANCE project in Valencia (Spain)

4, 5 and 6 March 2013, the Polibienestar Institute of the University of Valencia (Spain) and the CVI (Instituto Valenciano of the isle) organized a three-day meeting GOUV'AIRNANCE project. The first day was an opportunity to share in a public meeting, bringing together more competent persons for air quality, from Valencia, Marseille (France), Tripoli (Lebanon) and Aqaba (Jordan).

The next two days were spent at the meeting of the Steering Committee of GOUV'AIRNANCE project and helped to present the progress of the project in the areas concerned.

Competitiveness of Mediterranean territories

Globalization brings economic and social inequalities, but also local, since the territories receive differing competitive advantages. This leads to disparities up to the territorial divisions carriers of social and political imbalances. The issue of territorial competitiveness becomes a key challenge and impact heavily on regional development policies. The territory is indeed a relevant scale for solutions to the challenge of globalization.

Innovation and competitiveness in the north of the Mediterranean

Competitiveness can be measured in terms of criteria such as economic performance, political, business efficiency and infrastructure availability. However, one of the crucial factors in the competitiveness of a region's innovation: there is indeed a strong interdependence between innovation and competitiveness at the macro level as well, GDP per capita is positively correlated the degree of innovation in the region (which however is not causation). However, the need to promote innovation is sometimes underestimated in public policies in the countries of southern Europe, such as in business, where the cultural component weighs on confidence and cooperation among economic agents and citizens, which has a major impact on innovation and economic growth. Thus we observe a line north-south division in European countries.

The economic outlook for countries south of the Mediterranean

In the framework of the Euro-Mediterranean partnership, the priority issue is the establishment of a free trade zone that would allow the construction of a large integrated European market Mediterranean market. Within this market, the development of cross-border trade flows should be based on the complementarity of the economies of the north purchase and technology power, cheap labor in the South. However, in economic terms, the balance of Barcelona is very thin: the slow growth of foreign direct investment (FDI) and international trade in the area reveals the weakness of the process of economic integration and trade .

European initiatives in support of clusters: Policies for what results?

The clusters were often initially developed without any public intervention: it is their success in terms of economic performance which today strongly encourages governments to use this tool in their innovation policies, the active support the policy becomes crucial in the creation and development of clusters.

All levels of governance involved in policies to support clusters, if they are first at the national or even regional level, if only because of the strong territorial dimension they contain, the Union Europe is also heavily involved in the promotion policy clusters, although its incentives are different from those of the Member States in nature.

The diversity of policies to support clusters in the North Mediterranean region

The case of a French region (PACA), two Italian regions (Piedmont, Lombardy), two Spanish regions (Basque Country, Murcia) and Greece

The regions covered in this discussion reflect the diversity of policies to support clusters in Europe and their impact on the development of the latter. This plurality both policy clusters can be attributed to several factors.

The organization of the state plays a decisive role in the state is unitary, that is to say, centralized or federal type, with regions with a high degree of autonomy, political support clusters will be more important at the national or regional level, although both types can co-exist.

Empty and full: how to deal with an explosive urban growth and the growing regional imbalances?

Understanding existing territorial dynamics in the Mediterranean requires taking the measure of the urban explosion that know all the countries of the South and East of the Mediterranean. This phenomenon in turn affects all areas including the cities who face with the growth of their population.

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The limitations of urban planning tools and territorial

In most Mediterranean countries, states appear, sometimes for decades, their desire for a balanced territorial development and national urban systems. A planner wave emerged in the years following independence, the results are, and that's an understatement, far from conclusive beings.

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