JOBS IN EUROPE – INVESTING IN CITIES AND REGIONS FOR SUSTAINABLE GROWTH
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The Bureau of the Committee of the Regions,
Green growth and investment in Europe's cities and regions
1. having regard to the Europe 2020 Strategy objective of ensuring a transition towards a green, low carbon and resource efficient economy;
2. whereas the scarcity of resources and the current production and consumption patterns make it imperative to shift towards more sustainable models and a circular economy;
3. whereas the 2013 and 2014 Annual Growth Surveys stressed the potential for green job creation;
4. welcomes the political guidelines of the new Commission President-elect[1] which put green growth high on the agenda of the European Union for the coming five years;
5. underlines the key role of sustainable European cities towards green growth taking into account that they are generating 85% of Europe's GDP, 80% of energy consumption and 75% of carbon emissions[2] and they use a large share of the natural resources; underlines the important cumulative role that small and medium sized towns and cities with a population of less than 100 000 play, given that approximately 56% of EU towns and cities have a population of between 5 000 and 100 000;
6. supports therefore the idea for developing policy frameworks for urban green growth at local level and points out at the same time the high potential of green growth for the agriculture sector and rural development, as a condition for true territorial cohesion;
7. underlines the importance of a holistic approach to urban areas and reiterates its call for a White Paper for an integrated urban agenda based on a clear definition of integrated sustainable urban development and setting out clear objectives for the European Union, including urban mobility;
8. stresses that, managing the risk of disasters in order to achieve resilience is essential for sustainable green growth and employment. A change in approach from response and recovery to prevention, preparedness and resilience requires planned up-front (public and private) investment rather than reactive expenditure. Highlights that, within the EU, natural disasters caused 80 000 deaths and EUR 95 billion in economic losses over the last decade alone;[3]
9. highlights the crucial importance of increasing resource efficiency and productivity to ensure a long term sustainability and the creation of new emerging markets and eco industries with strong potential in terms of job creation, notably in the energy and waste management sectors and recycling industry;
10. recalls the importance of local and regional authorities and the private sector when it comes to making green public investment in local infrastructure, buildings, waste recycling plants and transport systems;
11. supports the findings of the OECD that "multi-level governance" is a key element to deliver green growth in cities and regions[4] and renews its call for a strengthened Europe 2020 strategy based on a strengthened territorial dimension;
12. underlines that in relation to the internal market for green goods and services a number of barriers hampering the transition to more resource efficient business models, which need to be addressed in close co-operation of all levels of government such as the regulatory framework, governance, access to finance and information on the potential of innovative products and green public procurement, in particular for SMEs;
13. welcomes the recent Communication of the European Commission for a Green Employment Initiative[5] that highlights the challenges and opportunities of greening the economy, in particular the need to match labour and skills demands while anticipating and managing changes in human capital needs;
14. points out that "green jobs" may be very heterogeneous in terms of skill requirements, pay levels and working conditions and that efforts should be made to "green" traditional industries;
15. sees in the Youth Employment Initiative an important instrument to improve the skills and the mobility of young people for green jobs but deplores, in light of the still unacceptable high level of youth unemployment in the EU of more than 22%, the slow implementation of the Youth Employment Initiative and the lack of Youth Guarantee schemes in numerous Member States;
16. welcomes the initiative of the Italian Presidency to hold – for the first time – a meeting of the ministers for employment and environment to enhance synergies of environmental, economic and social policies for the transition towards a green economy and calls for a greater involvement of LRAs in the EU in the development of integrated approaches to exploit the employment potential and to promote sustainable development;
17. stresses the role of research and development, the exchange of knowledge but also new eco-innovative solutions and therefore reiterates the claim to improve the synergies between Europe's Research programme Horizon 2020 and the European Structural and Investment Programmes to achieve an effective "Stairway to Excellence" for Europe's cities and regions;
18. underlines the need for a consistent and well-planned multi-annual legislative framework that reassures investors, firms and consumers that their decisions would generate an adequate return and reiterates the Committee of the Regions' claim for ambitious and binding energy efficiency targets to be set at the October 2014 European Council;
19. regrets however that the Energy Efficiency Communication[6] presented in July fails to address the territorial impacts of the proposals and suggests a close co-operation of the CoR with the European Institutions to assess these impact in view of the future legislative proposals;
20. calls on the EU institutions and the Member States to avoid duplication of networks on climate change such as the "Mayors adapt" initiative, and thus to widen the scope of the Covenant of Mayors as an innovative European instrument for the integration of local and regional authorities in the EU policy on climate change and to provide it with the appropriate resources beyond 2020;
21. reiterates its claims that the Emission Trading Scheme in Europe must urgently be revived to give the right market signals; and urges Member States to use part of the revenues from the auctioning allowances under the EU ETS to finance cleaner and innovative technologies in order to generate employment;
22. underlines that shifting taxation from labour to environment, resource and energy use can have an overall positive impact on economic recovery and job creation.
Financing the greening of the economy in Europe's Cities and Regions
23. draws attention to the fact that direct investment by local and regional authorities in the European Union has declined since 2010 by more than 20% and underlines the importance of promoting the use of innovative financial instruments and public-private partnership models for large-scale infrastructure investments; suggests that particularly the European Investment Bank continues its efforts to develop specific funding programmes with local and regional authorities and local banks;
24. suggests to extend the scope of European Project Bonds Initiative to energy efficiency programmes at local and regional level and suggests to start working on "regional project pipelines" for long-term private investors;
25. calls on the European Union and its Member States to strengthen growth enhancing policies, combining fiscal consolidation and full use of the flexibility provisions of the Stability and Growth Pact;
26. reiterates its support for the European Parliament's call to exclude national co-financing of investments co-financed by the European Union under partnership agreements and, in that context, asks that investment made by local and regional authorities in the context of the Structural Funds and the Cohesion Fund be excluded from the rules of the Stability and Growth Pact;
27. stresses the fact that the European Structural and Investment Funds will make more than EUR 38 billion available to support the shift to a more environmentally-friendly economy, through investments for the development of renewables, energy efficiency and energy saving and welcomes this significant increase compared to EUR 16.6 billion invested in the low-carbon economy for 2007-2013;
28. recalls the Committee of the Regions' suggestion that the Commission presents a Green Paper to enhance synergies between the EU, national and sub-national budgets, which could also support the idea to better align the EUR 300 billion investment package the Commission President elect has announced and suggest that additional measures are not only addressed to national, but also at local and regional level;
29. underlines that policy measures are also needed to enhance access to finance, in particular to help new business models grow and scale up and proposes practical steps to ease access to finance for new and innovative firms, both with respect to debt and equity finance and therefore suggests a speeding up of the work of the European Investment Bank on the Growth and Employment Facility (GEF);
30. instructs the President of the Committee of the Regions to submit this declaration to the President of the European Council, the President-elect of the European Commission, the President of the European Parliament, the President of the European Economic and Social Committee, the Italian Presidency of the EU and the forthcoming Latvian and Luxembourgish Presidencies.
Brussels, 12 September 2014
The Presidentof the
Committee of the Regions
Michel Lebrun
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[3] Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters (CRED).
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