The EU wants to combat brain drain in the less developed regions of the EU by supporting tailored place-based strategies via a new EU Talent Booster Mechanism.
A skilled workforce and qualified personnel are essential for economic development and adaptation to the green and digital economy. However, a new communication from the European Commission (EC) entitled ‘Harnessing talent in Europe’s regions’ shows that several regions in the EU lack young and skilled professionals. The communication, therefore, makes recommendations and unveils a new EU Talent Booster Mechanism to address this challenge. EC Vice-President for Democracy and Demography, Dubravka Šuica, presented the report on 7 February 2023 at the Saxony Liaison Office Brussels, after it was published on 17 January 2023. This EC communication represents a key deliverable of the European Year of Skills 2023, which is expected to start in May 2023, depending on Parliament and Council negotiations.
The communication identifies 82 regions (representing about 30% of the EU population, see page 5 of the communication report) that are facing demographic and economic challenges. The regions are mostly rural, but there are a number of peripheral and industrial transition regions among them. In the identified regions, the rate of young people who are neither in employment nor in education or training (NEET) is 19%, which is above the EU average of 13%; the adult participation in learning is at 5.6%, which is half of the EU average; and youth unemployment (14.6%) is also above the EU average (11.1%). These figures are linked to structural challenges in education systems, public governance, and low economic and innovative performance.
The reasons for these regions to fall behind with regards to a skilled workforce are manifold: First, demographic changes lead to an aging and declining working-age population. Second, these regions see their young people depart and move to more urban areas or abroad. And third, the rate of people with tertiary education degrees in these regions remains low. These interdependent reasons combined contribute to brain drain and create a “talent development trap”, a vicious circle of low skills and development.
Commission Vice-President Šuica stated the EU’s ambition clearly: “no one and no place should be left behind”. The main goal of the new Talent Booster Mechanism is to “promote, retain and attract talent” to these regions by boosting the demand for talent with more dynamic and diverse economic opportunities. This is dependent on investments and reforms. Concretely, the talent booster mechanism consists of eight pillars: i. Support for the creation and implementation of targeted regional development strategies, mindful of the fact that no one size strategy fits all regions in their diversity (an open call for regions will be launched in 2023); ii. Assistance for the creation of smart adaptation policies (an open call for regions will be launched in 2023); iii. Continuation of the Technical Support Instrument (TSI) for structural reforms in public governance; iv. Continued provision of direct financial assistance via the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF); v. The European Urban Initiative addressing the topic of shrinking cities and their transition; vi. Provision of information on other EU programmes that could be of relevance for regions, such as Horizon or Erasmus+; vii. Opportunities for the exchange of best practises in regional development (e.g. Simul+ in Saxony), such as with the Territorial Just Transition Platform; and viii. further collection and analysis of data on demographic changes in regions by the Joint Research Centre with its Regional Social Scoreboard for example.
The new Talent Booster Mechanism mainly gathers existing initiatives and funds. However, it provides an overview of what is available for lesser-developed regions in the EU and uses the occasion of the European Year of Skills to shed light on the demographic challenges in the EU. Further, it announced two new pilots calls for regions to develop and implement tailored place-based adaptation strategies to retain and attract young and highly skilled people.