“Galway and the West of Ireland demonstrate how strong local businesses, supported by investment and collaboration, can contribute to Europe's competitiveness and resilience, and future sustainability,” said Jimmy McClearn (IE/EPP), Member of Galway County Council, as local and regional leaders gathered in Galway for the European Committee of the Regions’ Commission for Economic Policy (ECON) meeting and conference.
The two-day meeting and conference, hosted by McClearn, brought together local and regional leaders, policymakers, academics and innovation experts to discuss how Europe’s regions can strengthen their economies through investment, trade, innovation and support for local businesses. Discussions also highlighted the experience of Galway and the wider Atlantic Economic Corridor, including the role of foreign direct investment and indigenous businesses in creating high-skilled jobs and connecting regional economies to global markets.
Alberto Cirio (IT/EPP), Chair of the ECON Commission and President of Piedmont, highlighted the importance of the discussions for strengthening Europe’s regional economies. “Galway has provided a valuable space to reflect on how Europe can strengthen regional competitiveness, resilience and sustainable growth. I warmly thank our Irish hosts and all participants for their contribution, which has highlighted the importance of innovation, local economic strength and cooperation across the Atlantic Economic Corridor,” said Cirio.
With the Single Market facing trade volatility and shifting global supply chains, discussions highlighted the importance of supporting business growth, innovation and productivity, as well as regulatory simplification and competitiveness reforms that reduce administrative burdens.
Michael Murphy, Member of Dáil Éireann and former EPP-CoR member, highlighted the importance of ensuring that businesses can grow and scale up within their regions: “Europe’s regions are not short of ambition, ideas or entrepreneurs. The challenge is making sure that a promising start-up can become a successful scale-up without feeling that it has to relocate to a major capital or economic centre to do so. That means creating the right conditions locally — access to skills and talent, infrastructure, finance, innovation supports and, crucially, faster and more predictable planning and investment decisions. Ireland’s experience shows the value of bringing local authorities, enterprise agencies, higher education and industry around the same table. If we get that ecosystem right, regional businesses can scale internationally, create high-quality jobs locally and ensure that economic growth is shared more evenly across our regions.”
During an exchange on the Cloud and AI Development Act, Csaba Borboly (RO/EPP), Vice-President of Harghita County Council, warned that cloud and AI must not become new sources of territorial inequality. He stressed that rising costs and dependency could particularly affect less developed, rural and mountain regions, widening existing gaps and contributing to internal migration. Borboly linked the issue to cohesion and the Right to Stay and called for a territorial affordability test to monitor regional access and total costs, together with accessible finance, shared expertise and fair procurement for smaller authorities.