In the EU, 359 bioeconomy-related strategies are published or in progress at the regional level, contributing to the European Green Deal.
In October 2022, the European Commission’s Knowledge Centre for Bioeconomy published a study on ‘the Bioeconomy strategy developments in EU regions’. Previously, an EU Bioeconomy Strategy progress report was published as requested by the Council of the European Union. It assessed that there are currently actions in place to reach the five objectives of the European Bioeconomy Strategy. It further assessed an increase in national and regional bioeconomy strategies, which are essential for a successful deployment of bioeconomy (see SwissCore article).
The recently published study on regional strategies was conducted from July 2021 to March 2022 to map and analyse the deployment of strategies related to the bioeconomy at the regional level in the EU. It assessed that for most Member States and regions bioeconomy related research and innovation (R&I) is indeed a priority. The analysis focused on the regions as defined in the EU common classification of territorial units for statistics (NUTS), namely NUTS 1 (regions) and NUTS 2 (provinces), while the NUTS 3 level (departments) was only evaluated in case no relevant information was available at higher levels.
The results of the mapping indicated that 194 regions in the EU have or are working on a strategic framework related to the bioeconomy. Some regions follow even more than one strategy; therefore, overall, 359 bioeconomy-related strategies were identified at the regional level in the EU. The study also analysed that the regional strategic frameworks go along with the five objectives of the EU Bioeconomy Strategy. Still, the most frequently addressed objectives were the ‘sustainable management of natural resources’, ‘reducing the dependence on non-renewable resources’ and ‘strengthening the competitiveness of the regions and creating jobs’.
Most of the strategies were published in the last years, with a peak in 2021, which could be linked with the beginning of Horizon Europe as many regional strategies are aligned with the schedule of the new EU programmes (2021-2027). Under Horizon 2020, the EC already dedicated €3.85 billion of public funds to bioeconomy projects, and proposed €10 billion for food and natural resources, including bioeconomy under Horizon Europe. While most of the strategies embed bioeconomy as a topic within a wider strategic framework (e.g. circular economy), others follow sectoral strategies (e.g. forestry or waste). Italy is the country with the most regions with strategies (21), followed by Sweden (20), France (18), Spain (17), Finland (16) and Poland (16).
The study also contains short summaries for each of the 27 EU Member States, referring to each country’s regional strategies related to bioeconomy. According to the analysis, the existence of regional bioeconomy strategies is linked to two factors: First, if the country is large and decentralised, then it is likely that there are regional strategies in place, while for smaller countries, no regional strategies could be identified (e.g. Luxembourg, Malta, Cyprus). Second, where a strategy for bioeconomy exists at the national level, it may be less frequent that dedicated strategies are deployed at the regional level (for example, in Finland or Germany, where solid strategies are available on the national level). However, even if a national strategy exists, there can still be regional frameworks to specify actions further and to focus on the specificities of the regions (e.g. in the case of France and Portugal). Furthermore, there could be observed specific patterns per country; for example, in Spain, bioeconomy is often addressed through circular economy strategies, while in Italy, it is linked to sustainable development strategies.
Finally, the European Territorial Cooperation Programmes – Interreg are often key for the development of regional and multi-regional bioeconomy strategies, as these projects frequently contribute to the deployment of regional strategic frameworks or action plans in countries, where the bioeconomy implementation is still missing or limited at the regional level. This is also the case for the BIOEAST initiative, which has an essential role in pushing bioeconomy development in 11 central and eastern European countries.