Obstacles and financing of municipal investment
3.3. Assessment of territorial smartness in the EU and CESEE The Smart Region Index shows a significant divide in the smartness footprint for Europe. The smartest regions are generally in the UK, Germany, the Netherlands and the Nordic countries. Southern European, Irish and French regions are mostly in the mid-range of the ranking. In many countries, not just in CESEE, the smartest region is the capital (e.g. Madrid, Paris-ĂŽle de France, London metropolitan area). Significant intra-national disparities are evident in Germany, the UK and Belgium. CESEE and Greek regions perform poorly overall: only a few regions in this group, mainly capitals (but in the case of Slovenia, also non-capital ones), rank above 900 out of 1337. Regions in the UK dominate the top performing regions. Specifically, London and its commuting zone is ranked at the top of the final rankings, while Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire also perform exceptionally in the overall smartness score. However, when looking at the individual pillars, most regions in the UK do not perform well when it comes to environmental aspects, particularly the efficiency of environmental management. The Dutch region of Utrecht is another top performer in the sample, but also faces environmental issues. On the other hand, the Stockholm region is one of the best performers in Smart Environment and overall one of the smartest regions, but it faces several challenges when it comes to Smart Mobility. The latter is also an area which requires improvement for the Helsinki region. Finally, German regions score relatively well overall but report average performance when it comes to environmental and governance. Paris and Luxembourg also achieve a good score overall. However, Paris shows weaknesses in the environmental and governance pillars, and Luxembourg in governance and mobility.
Map 1 – Smart region ranking (EU-28 NUTS-3 regions)
Source: Authors’ calculations.
European Investment Bank
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