World Geostrategic Insights interview with Louis Delcart on how to approach decentralization and regionalization in a globalized world.
Louis Delcart is a Senior consultant and trainer in retail banking, circular economy and result based management, with vast experience in Eastern European, Arabic, African and Asian countries. He is member of the board of directors of the European Academy of the Regions (EAR-AER) and visiting lecturer and internship tutor at a post-graduate program of the University of Brussels. Louis Delcart is also specialised in sustainability and circular economy, and he is the author of the book “Towards a Circular Economy: The Great Experiences Book”.”
Q: You are a director of the European Academy of the Regions (EAR-AER). What does that mean?
A: Let me first tell you that there is also an Institut der Regionen Europas (IRE) whose aim is to promote Subsidiarity in Europe through cross-border cooperation and by connecting European regions. Regional development often transcends national borders. “Regional” politics is therefore very often cross-border: the Balkan region, the Iberian Peninsula, the Blue Banana, Scandinavia. EAR-AER’s activities are based on regional development within national borders and focuses primarily on regions that are less obvious and therefore create less employment because they are less populated, geographically less attractive, further from the capital, etc.
We are also an Academy: we study and try to detect techniques that can also be applied elsewhere. However, best practices usually require extrapolation: and that skill is not given to everyone. So we try to pass this on through articles, conferences, seminars, etc. We have two blogs: one about regional development (lodelcar.tumblr.com) and one about circular economy (earaercircular.tumblr.com). The latter is even daily.
Q: Isn’t a regional approach dangerous? Doesn’t that often lead to a desire for independence?
A: There is a risk. The Basque Country and Catalonia in Spain, Flanders in Belgium, Corsica in France, Scotland in the UK, the FarOer in Denmark: they all have parties that strive for independence. But they have still not succeeded in their aim. Most Basque parties no longer strive for independence but for more self-reliance. And it is striking that Spanish quality newspapers such as El País nowadays regularly praise the positive results of Basque cities, provinces or companies. What they all have in common is that their call for more independence has led those regions to excel in what they do and to consciously strive for prosperity for the entirety of their population.
In a hyper-centralized country like the UK, where the Greater London region and the south of the country have attracted all the funding and where the North of England has been a large economically deprived region for years – much more so than the deprived regions in Mainland Europe, Scotland is a pleasant exception. Precisely because they stood their ground and took their fate into their own hands. And the fact that there was oil in their part of the North Sea obviously helped.
Q: Is there no distrust from Europe for your kind of regional approach?
A: On the contrary. There are two important instruments that have been predominant within Europe since the Maastricht Treaty (1992): the principle of subsidiarity and the cohesion funds. The principle of subsidiarity promoted by the EU means that decisions should be taken as close to the citizen as possible on issues that directly affect the citizen as an individual. This principle also means that the EU tries to convince the governments of the Member States to make decision-making powers and financial resources available to regional and local authorities.
On the other hand, that principle also implies that the EU aims to take decisions to a higher supranational level when it comes to issues that affect all EU citizens equally, such as customs policy and trade with third parties, fisheries policy, as well as security. in all its aspects – food security, cyber security, counter-terrorism, police cooperation, border security, agricultural policy, transport policy, energy policy, research policy, democracy and the rule of law, climate change, citizen mobility, development cooperation, consumer protection at a second level in cooperation with the Member States.
The EU focused on local initiatives in its previous committees as well in its current committee, with the Cohesion Funds as a crucial stimulus. The Cohesion Funds are an instrument of the EU’s cohesion policy, which is the European Union’s strategy to promote and support the ‘comprehensive harmonious development’ of its Member States and regions. And although the Green Deal has redeployed a lot of financial resources, the current European Commission has also provided billions for the cohesion funds.
Q: In a globalized world, politics at the level of cities and provinces seems outdated to us. Don’t you look back too much?
A: There will always be inequalities in economic development. The composition of the population, the presence of large economic players, the presence of good schools and universities make the ascendance of a population towards economic improvement easier in one region compared with other ones. But to arrive at these results, the effort should not come from the national government. Local and regional authorities can have an immense impact on the development of their region and city. Even if they only have authority and a lack of budget, their creativity and local cohesion and dynamics can achieve important improvements for their local population. One should read the testimonials within the list of mayors selected for the “Mayor of the World competition”, to be convinced that mayors and governors can make a difference.
Q: So, globalization should be stopped?
A: You can’t throw the baby out with the bathwater. There are too many positive aspects of globalization. Nevertheless, economists and geographers have been calling for deglobalization and especially for a reduction in world trade for several years. They point out that for 30 years, Europe has followed a strategy of moving the most polluting activities to under-polluted continents because deaths were cheaper there. However, this meant that Europe now became dependent on world trade for everything. As a result, we have to import many crucial raw materials and goods and are therefore almost no longer self-sufficient.
This not only concerns some ‘made in China’ products whose supply can be brutally interrupted by natural disasters or epidemics, but also, for example, the uranium for our nuclear power stations, which used to come from France and now from countries such as Niger. Today, 40 percent of the food we consume in Europe grows on another continent.
Q: Where does the regional approach fit into that picture?
A: The powers that have been transferred to lower levels in the EU member states often correspond to powers for which the EU currently only has supporting powers or no powers at all. The latter are then exclusively the domain of the nation states. These concerns: Education policy, Social security, Public health policy, Taxes – with the exception of taxes that may distort the internal market -, Family law, Spatial planning – as the rules for the protection of flora and fauna are respected at national level, Public order and Organization public administration.
Many of these themes are “linked to individuals”. And it is striking that not only countries with a federal government structure, such as Germany, Austria, Switzerland or Belgium, but also countries with a centralized government system have decentralized powers at many of these levels. Spain and Italy are striking examples of this. But also Sweden, Denmark and the Netherlands. It is remarkable, for example, that in the Netherlands “Randstad Holland”, where most economic activity is centralised, along the coast, has been economically overtaken by parts of the provinces of North Brabant and Limburg, with the city of Eindhoven as its central point, where the multinational Philips is situated. Because that is what the regional approach is about: bundling forces that are locally present.
Q: Joining forces that are locally present?
A: In 1995 an article by Stanford professor Henry Etzkowitz and University of Amsterdam professor Loet Leydesdorff was published: “The Triple Helix, University-Industry-Government Relations: A laboratory for Knowledge-Based Economic Development”. The triple helix model of innovation refers to a series of interactions between academia (the university), business and government, to promote economic and social development, as described in concepts such as the knowledge economy and the knowledge society. And although it was not originally intended to connect these three parties in a geographical context, this has often happened that way. Basque universities have started to collaborate with Basque governments and the Basque business community. The same happened in Flanders, in the regions of North Brabant and Limburg in the Netherlands, in the Emilia Romagna region in Italy, in Jutland in Denmark, etc.
Q: Is that valid against the power of large companies?
A: We are in a knowledge society without borders. When production needs to take place, many people still have to gather in one place. A car assembly plant simply cannot be located in a rural area where people live far from each other. However general digitalization enables people to order and have things delivered wherever they live. The agricultural sector is reorganizing: the short chain is becoming increasingly popular, with customers ordering directly from the farmer who provides the deliveries himself or has them delivered on site or at agreed collection points.
Many platforms have emerged that can open up areas for tourism: from local transport to local accommodation. The circular economy, which is replacing the linear disposable economy, relies on reusing materials and repairing existing objects and clothing to extend their lifespan. It creates jobs locally. The challenge lies mainly in organizing selective waste collection in such a detailed manner that many materials can be reused without too much distance.
That is the role of regional and local authorities, among others. and an important contribution they can make. They just need to be given the necessary resources and acquire the necessary know-how. And on the other hand, I still believe in the dynamic power of SMEs. These are the innovators of the market, these are forces that sometimes take an entire village in tow.
Q: Central-decentralized?
You use the right words. Some countries are allergic to a federal model, in which many powers are passed on to subordinate entities. In Ukraine, before the Russian invasion, I was not supposed to talk about a German-style federal state structure. Yet they have introduced decentralized elements in cities such as Kyiv, Odessa or Lviv, which were aimed at developing SMEs, waste policy, health policy, etc. It is mainly about relying on one’s own strength.
A recent conversation with a representative of SMEUnion in Slovenia taught me that that country does not have a decentralized structure. Which in turn is a problem to support SMEs, because they are embedded locally. A resilient society is a dynamic whole, in which citizens show solidarity, in which (local) companies put first the interests of society and the environment in which they operate, in which knowledge centres and non-profit organizations bundle all their powers and in which the government consults with all these parties and seeks their support and agreement so that the decisions they make are supported and accepted.
Louis Delcart – Senior consultant and trainer, member of the board of directors of the European Academy of the Regions (EAR-AER).