The last chapter of this edition takes a look at Veneto in international terms, something that has become a regular feature of the statistical report. Its results are compared to those of other European regions and, in particular, to those whose economic, demographic and social conditions are most similar to Veneto's.
The most direct comparison is that based on the targets established by the European Council in Lisbon in March of 2000, which aimed to transform the European Union into the most competitive and dynamic economy in the world by 2010, one based on knowledge and capable of ensuring sustainable economic growth, increasing and improving the number of jobs, and creating greater social cohesion and respect for the environment. Later, in 2005, the strategy was relaunched and centred primarily on the realisation of more stable and long-lasting growth and the creation of new and better jobs, within the wider long-term objective of improving the quality of life of all citizens and ensuring greater prosperity and social justice. To achieve these objectives, providing incentives and opportunities for education and training is of increasing importance. Greater lifelong investment in human capital and individual creativity is undoubtedly the key to creating new and better jobs, a fundamental premise for economic recovery. It is a means to combat inequality and poverty and a tool that will undoubtedly not only reduce youth unemployment, but also help all disadvantaged groups to find jobs, as well as reduce social marginalisation.
The year 2010 is around the corner, but the path to achieving these objectives will take longer than planned, since the results obtained so far are geographically uneven and below expectations, due in part to the current world economic crisis. Today policy makers also have a new objective: finding a way to recreate the jobs that have been lost.
Below is a summary of the current progress made toward the Lisbon Agenda's objectives in Veneto, in Italy, in the European Union, and in the Italian and European regions that are Veneto's competitors.
The Italian regions compared are all above the Italian average in regard to employment. In 2008 Veneto recorded an employment figure for the population between 15 and 64 years of age of 66.4%, which made it fifth among the Italian regions. Emilia Romagna is the only region in Italy that has slightly surpassed the European objective with an employment rate of 70.2%, nearly four percentage points greater than the figure for Veneto. The employment situation in most of the foreign regions looked at is generally quite positive: in the German regions and Cataluña, the European target has been surpassed, in some cases it has been for several years. Rhône-Alpes, however, has had employment levels rather similar to those in Veneto. In the German and Spanish regions, the objective for female employment has been surpassed, as has that for workers between 55 and 64 years of age, while for Italy and Veneto the target is still far off. It should be noted that employment levels may be influenced by the different rules on retirement age in force in single European countries.
Although participation in the labour market is generally greater in the European regions, they have, on average, registered higher unemployment rates compared to the rates in the Italian regions: 7% was the average European figure in 2008, a little higher than the Italian figure and double that of Veneto (3.5%).
Better levels and quality of employment are impossible without greater research, education and innovation. And in these areas there is still much room for improvement. Only by investing in people throughout their entire lives and promoting high-quality education can the success of Europe be assured. Human capital is the strategic resource for European development and, therefore, it is necessary to constantly improve the quality and effectiveness of its education and training systems, as well as to facilitate access to education systems for everyone.
To promote social equity and cohesion, the Lisbon Agenda also calls for the reduction of poverty. In Europe 16 people out of 100 are at risk of poverty, while in Italy it is 20%. The figure for Veneto is decidedly lower and similar to the other competing regions in Italy: about 1 person in 10 lives in difficult circumstances that could compromise their standard of living. (Tabella 14.1)
In the second part of the chapter, there are a series of charts related to the indices of various sectors (Note 1). In each one Veneto is compared to the regions considered its competitors: Lombardia, Piemonte, Emilia Romagna, Toscana, Baden-Württemberg, Bayern, Cataluña and Rhône-Alpes, as well as with Italy and the European Union.
For the processing of the index charts, analysis is based mainly on Eurostat data. It has not always been possible to use the same years for every topic, so the most recent data available has been used. For Veneto, recent data is available for almost all the topics, but to make comparisons, figures using the same timeframe for all the regions analysed have been used. Indeed, there are some differences to note between the data presented in the first part of this report and that used hereunder: this is due to the need to make the figures compatible with each other and with some Eurostat definitions that do not always correspond exactly to the ones used officially at a national level.