According to data published by the European Commission, the Community of Madrid, the Basque Country and Catalonia are the only Spanish regions above the European average in the European Union's Regional Competitiveness Index.
The Community services note that southern European regions tend to be below this average and point out that only these three Spanish regions, together with Lombardy (Italy) and the metropolitan area of Lisbon (Portugal), are above it.
In other countries such as Austria, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and Germany, the report concluded that all their regions usually achieve results that place them above the average of the European competitiveness index.
Of the 263 regions examined by Brussels, no Spanish region appears in the top positions. Madrid is the Spanish region with the best position in the European Union as a whole, ranking 32nd (with a score of 119.3), followed a long way behind by the Basque Country (77th place and 107.6 points) and Catalonia (107th place with 101.3 points).
Below the average, but still a short distance behind, are the autonomous communities of Asturias, Cantabria, Navarre, Aragon and the Valencian Community. Andalusia (76.6), the Canary Islands (76.1), Extremadura (70.9), Melilla (69.6) and Ceuta (62.2) all came in at the bottom of the ranking of Spanish regions.
With this index – published every three years – the EU executive aims to measure the appeal and sustainability offered by each region to companies and citizens to encourage them to settle there.
To do so, it uses several indicators ranging from "basic" drivers for the economy, such as macroeconomic stability, health and education, to the more advanced dimension attributed to innovation and key efficiency drivers, such as labour market efficiency and higher education.