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.

Clusters and the merits of international cooperation

The notion of cluster, commonly associated with a key engine of growth and competitiveness, became pregnant in the economy and public policy. Since the late 1990s, and even earlier for some areas, training clusters have increased, relayed by a conscious policy to support and strengthen a movement born out of its institutional bodies. Today, clusters further strengthen the principle of open where they sit opening internationally and in cooperation with other clusters, domestic or foreign innovation.