Background
What is harnessing talent in Europe’s regions about?
Europe's got talent. But talent needs to be nurtured, especially as the EU is going through important demographic transition, as highlighted by the 2023 Report on the Impact of Demographic Change.
The Commission published a Communication on Harnessing Talent in Europe's regions and launched the Talent Booster Mechanism, aiming to bring a fresh impetus for reskilling and upskilling as the first key initiative to contribute to the European Year of Skills in 2023.
This Mechanism supports EU regions affected by the accelerated decline of their working age population to train, retain and attract the people, the skills and the competences needed to address the impact of the demographic transition.
It proposes place based and multi-dimensional solutions, including the use of existing EU funds and initiatives to support regions most affected by the ongoing demographic transition and its side-effects and prevent the emergence of new and increased territorial disparities in the EU.
The Talent Booster Mechanism and Harnessing Talent Platform are part of the Demography Toolbox published in October 2023, which sets out a comprehensive approach to demographic change in the EU.
Targeting all impacted EU regions
EU Member States are facing a sharp decline of their working age population. The population has decreased by 3.5 million people between 2015 and 2020 and is expected to decline by an additional 35 million people by 2050.
Most Member States are affected by this phenomenon, but some regions are more acutely impacted than others. Regions that are already lagging behind in certain sectors suffer an additional strain when they lose their young and highly skilled population, who leave to seek better employment opportunities elsewhere, while at the same time failing to attract new talent from outside the region. If left unaddressed, this process will trigger new and growing territorial disparities, as the population in EU’s regions continues to age while the share of tertiary educated persons stagnates.
The Communication on Harnessing Talent in Europe's regions identified 82 regions in 16 Member States (accounting for almost 30% of the EU population) that are severely affected by this decline in the working-age population and low and stagnant share of tertiary educated people.
More details on the most impacted regions can be found below.
Being in a talent development trap is a multidimensional challenge and poses a significant risk to the long-term prosperity of identified regions. These regions face specific structural challenges such as inefficiencies in the labour market, education, training, and adult learning systems, as well as low performance in the areas of innovation, public governance, or business development. Ensuring that these regions become more resilient and attractive is therefore a crucial element of the EU’s commitment to leave no one and no place behind.
However, as stated above, other regions may experience similar structural demographic trends. While their situation is more favourable than the 82 identified regions, they could still have subregional issues of working age population decline. In this regard, several Pillars of the Talent Booster Mechanism are targeting all EU regions.