Retaining talents and skills for regional growth. What is the role of civil society partners?

Mr Vardakastanis presented the European Commission's Communication on Harnessing Talent in Europe's Regions, in which the aim was to put forward targeted measures to promote and retain talent in underdeveloped regions. The focus of the Commission's new policy was mainly on regions experiencing an accelerated decrease in their working age population, as well as on regions experiencing a significant departure of young people, due to a lack of public and social services and a lack of job opportunities in these regions. The Commission has launched recently the Harnessing Talent Platform, which was one of the tools that the Commission has developed to help Europe’s regions promote, retain and attract the talents that their economies lack. Attracting skilled workers required the cooperation of national and regional government, universities, vocational education and training institutions, research facilities and businesses.

Factors that will make regions attractive place to live and work included access to services and infrastructure, such as early childhood education, healthcare, and affordable housing, cultural services, transport and energy supply. The scope of our political lab was to explore how we can retain skilled workers through cohesion policies and how we can give more boost to the regions of the EU.
Keynote speech

Tatjana BABRAUSKIENĖ , Rapporteur of the EESC opinion on Harnessing talent in EU regions

Ms Babrauskiene emphasized the promising nature of the opinion, despite her regret to see too many regions left behind, while the opinion precisely called for the opposite. The implementation of the Commission's initiative on "Harnessing talent in Europe’s regions" was too much oriented on money, thus creating disparities between regions, instead of providing equal support to all regions. In addition, the sustainability and implementation mechanism of the initiative was crucial, in order to avoid the end of the process once the money has gone. Ms Babrauskiene also mentioned the lack of knowledge about the initiative in certain regions, usually the most disadvantaged ones, thus facilitating the access to the funds for the more advantaged regions.

Christian Spahr, Secretary General, Assembly of European regions (AER)

Mr Spahr mentioned that more than 18 European regions, representing one third of the EU population, were affected by ageing decline due to young people leaving for urban cities. Such a situation created a development trap as these regions became less attractive. Thus, it was important for such regions to keep competitiveness, increase the citizens life and experience economic growth, especially through the Commission's initiative.

Astrid Hannes, Policy and Project Manager, European Regions Research and Innovation Network (ERRIN)

Ms Hannes explained that some regions experienced a talent trap, even though they were leaders in the fields of research, because too many people leave regions to go in urban cities. Thus, it was important to gather data about the required skills in the regions, and to have a long term strategy to better target these skills. Some regions invested a lot on such data and managed to keep talents because they were able to counter the negative effects of the trap. Inter-regions cooperation was also a key aspect to improve the situation, and research and innovation could be a driver in this cooperation to attract talents and young workers.