New website shows the competitive position of European Regions

The European Regional Competitiveness Scoreboard gives an overview of the competitive position of various industries in 256 European regions. The most important competitors for these industries and the most important trading partners are presented. The website makes it also possible to assess the performance of regions in comparison to their competitors and to analyse their strengths and weaknesses. The methodology enables a detailed analysis of the competitive position of specific types of economic activities in European regions, based on a comparison of only those regions whose trade flows reveal competition between them. The website gives crucial regional information that can be used for the development of a regional smart specialisation strategy. In such a smart specialisation strategy, a region stimulates innovation based on its own strengths and possibilities. These strengths and possibilities must be based on economic data, so that, in collaboration with company life, science and society (the triple or quadruple helix), a strategy is based on the economic reality of a region. These smart specialisation strategies are compulsory in the new cohesion policy.

The website is developed in a collaboration between PBL Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency and the Institute of Prospective Technology Studies, Joint Research Centre (IPTS-JRC), part of the European Commission’s in-house science service.