Interreg III B Archimed Human Resources and DevelopmentPlanning on both sides of Ionian Sea – HuReDePIS

Western Greece, Ionian Islands and Epirus regions in Greece and a great part of Southern Italy, and especially the territories of Sicily and Puglia are considered to be facing structural problems and their economic development to be lagging when compared to the other EU areas. Regional and local authorities in these territories have materialised integrated spatial development plans, but often without the participation of all concerned partners of the administrative authorities and the public local organizations. The economic system of the examining area is characterized by late industrialization, large agricultural and tourist sectors, speculative urban development and an extensive, family-based, informal economy. But at the same time, rural areas are changing, particularly with respect to demography, diversification, and strengthening links to national and global economies. Additionally, those significantly rural territories are characterized by the strong presence of the primary sector, which, nevertheless, appears to be declining in significance. The small-sized enterprises of local impact predominate, have not many possibilities for their expansion and their isolation from research and development opportunities do not allow them to advance technologically and adopt innovations. In relation to the labour markets, important reforms took place in both countries recently towards the guarantee of healthy economic competition and business flexibility. Those significant changes brought about a demand for flexible labour power, independent of trade union practices and legislation. Localities in this area have been designed and developed without a proper strategic plan, which is the result of economic and po¬litical discontinuities, of systematically ignoring the local social capital and potential as well as the human and natural resources and consequently the target of sustainability. Most of the region¬al and local authorities were unprepared to undertake an active role and device a spatial development strategy. Patras Science Park Regional took all these under consideration and decided to take advantages of the EU Regional development programme: Interreg EU Community Initiative Programme In-terreg III B Archimed. So that HuReDePIS was submitted to¬wards the direction to overcome the above mentioned problems and to examine and propose the growth policies on 6 sectors: Agriculture, Tourism, SME 's, Services, Environment and Cul¬ture for the regions of Western Greece, Ionian Islands, Epirus, Puglia and Sicily.