Territorial and Socio-Economic Analysis Interreg Programme Slovenia-Austria 2021-2027 Consortium ÖAR GmbH Manfred KOJAN (Project Manager) Lindengasse 56, 1070 Wien/Vienna, Austria ZaVita svetovanje, d.o.o. Tominškova 40, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia Vienna/Ljubljana; October 12, 2020 1 Territorial and Socio-economic Analysis, Interreg SI-AT 2021-2027 Contracting Authority: Kotnikova 5 1000 Ljubljana Contracting Authority’s representative: Mojca Muršec Service Provider: OeAR GmbH Lindengasse 56 1070 Vienna, Austria Tel.: +43 664 502 6897 email: [email protected] www.oear.at ZaVita, svetovanje, d.o.o. Tominškova 40 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia Project Manager: Manfred KOJAN, ÖAR GmbH Deputy Project Manager: Matevž Premelč, ZaVita, d.o.o. Key and additional experts: Karl Reiner, OeAR GmbH Herwig Langthaler, OeAR GmbH Michael Weber, OeAR GmbH Matjaž Harmel, ZaVita, d.o.o. Klemen Strmšnik, ZaVita, d.o.o. Sabina Cepuš, ZaVita, d.o.o. Julija Marošek, Nov’na razvoj, d.o.o. Aleksandra Krajnc, ZaVita, d.o.o. Project: Programming of the Interreg Programme Slovenia-Austria 2021-2027 Contract number: C1541-20P410001 Date: 12 October 2020 2 Territorial and Socio-economic Analysis, Interreg SI-AT 2021-2027 Table of Contents Executive Summary ..................................................................................................................................... 7 PO1 – A more competitive and smarter Europe ..................................................................................... 9 PO2 – A greener, low carbon Europe ................................................................................................... 10 PO3 – A more connected Europe ......................................................................................................... 10 PO4 – A more social and inclusive Europe ............................................................................................ 10 PO5 – A Europe closer to citizens ......................................................................................................... 11 ISO1 – A better cooperation governance ............................................................................................. 11 1. Introduction .......................................................................................................................................... 12 1.1. Background information............................................................................................................ 12 1.2. Purpose and objectives of the analysis ..................................................................................... 12 1.3. Methodology ............................................................................................................................. 13 2. Territorial and socio-economic analysis ................................................................................................ 16 2.1. General territorial characteristics ............................................................................................. 16 2.2. Demographic structure and social environment ....................................................................... 20 2.3 Economic situation, competitiveness, entrepreneurship .......................................................... 27 2.4 Natural and cultural heritage and tourism ................................................................................. 32 2.5 Labour market ............................................................................................................................ 35 2.6 Knowledge society, digitalisation ............................................................................................... 41 2.7 Environment and nature ............................................................................................................ 49 2.8 Mobility and Accessibility ........................................................................................................... 55 2.9 Territorial governance and institutional cooperation ................................................................ 58 2.10 Links with macroregional strategies ......................................................................................... 61 2.11 Lessons learnt from past experience ........................................................................................ 61 3. SWOT, challenges, needs and development potentials ........................................................................ 64 ERDF Policy Objective 1: A smarter Europe by promoting innovative and smart economic transformation ................................................................................................................................. 64 ERDF Policy Objective 2: A greener, low carbon Europe by promoting clean and fair energy transition, green and blue investment, the circular economy, climate adaptation and risk prevention and management ........................................................................................................... 69 ERDF Policy Objective 3: A more connected Europe by enhancing mobility and regional ICT connectivity ...................................................................................................................................... 74 ERDF Policy Objective 4: A more social Europe by implementing the European Pillar of Social Rights ................................................................................................................................................ 77 ERDF Policy Objective 5: A Europe closer to citizens by fostering the sustainable and integrated development of urban, rural and coastal areas and local initiatives. .............................................. 83 ISO 1: Interreg-specific Objective: A better cooperation governance ............................................. 86 4. Summary of main findings based on Territorial and Socio-Economic analysis structured per specific Policy Objective ............................................................................................................................ 89 ERDF Policy Objective 1: A smarter Europe by promoting innovative and smart economic transformation ................................................................................................................................. 89 3 Territorial and Socio-economic Analysis, Interreg SI-AT 2021-2027 ERDF Policy Objective 2: A greener, low carbon Europe by promoting clean and fair energy transition, green and blue investment, the circular economy, climate adaptation and risk prevention and management ........................................................................................................... 91 ERDF Policy Objective 3: A more connected Europe by enhancing mobility and regional ICT connectivity ...................................................................................................................................... 93 ERDF Policy Objective 4: A more social Europe by implementing the European Pillar of Social Rights ................................................................................................................................................ 94 ERDF Policy Objective 5: A Europe closer to citizens by fostering the sustainable and integrated development of urban, rural and coastal areas and local initiatives. .............................................. 96 ISO 1: Interreg-specific Objective: A better cooperation governance ............................................. 97 5. Literature............................................................................................................................................... 98 List of Tables Table 1: Area and population of NUTS III regions analysed in the Territorial and socio-economic analysis . 17 Table 3: Population in the period 2014 - 2019 .............................................................................................. 21 Table 4: Population change and age structure .............................................................................................. 22 Table 5: Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita (p.c.) on NUTS 3 level .................................................... 28 Table 6: Employment rate of population aged 20-64 ................................................................................... 36 Table 7: Number of employed per sector of economy, 2018 ....................................................................... 37 Table 8: Unemployment rate ........................................................................................................................ 40 Table 9: Education structure levels ............................................................................................................... 41 Table 10: Municipalities – number and population size, 2019 ...................................................................... 58 List of Figures Figure 1: NUTS III regions analysed in the Territorial and socio-economic analysis ..................................... 16 Figure 2: Territorial disparities in GDP p.c. for the year 2017 ....................................................................... 28 Figure 3: Overview of the economic area of Styria and bordering areas ...................................................... 31 Figure 4: Innovation index ............................................................................................................................. 45 Figure 5: Map of NATURA 2000 areas in the observed NUTS 3 regions .......................................................