Data collection template and questionnaire

Mecklenburg-Vorpommern (Mecklenburg-West Pomerania)

NUTS 1: DE8 MECKLENBURG-VORPOMMERN

GDP per head (2000) in €

DE8 Mecklenburg-Vorpommern²⁶⁰: 16.240€ (average of new Länder incl. Berlin: 17.424 € and excl. Berlin: 16.216 €)²⁶¹

Germany²⁶²: 24.700€

EU-15 = 100; DE8 = 69,4²⁶³

GDP at current prices/in Million €

Mecklenburg-Vorpommern²⁶⁴ (mio €): 28.643

Germany²⁶⁵ (mio €): 2.030.000

EU-15²⁶⁶(mio €): 8 524 371
Employment rate (2000)

59,7%²⁶⁷ (753.700 persons²⁶⁸) (German average = 68,8%)

Unemployment rate (2002)

18,6 %²⁶⁹ (169.747 persons²⁷⁰) (German average: 9,8%; West 7,9%, East: 18,0%)

Technological standing (5 point scale): 3-3,5
Strengths²⁷¹ [short description]

Mecklenburg-Vorpommern is located in the north-eastern part of Germany. The longest coastline of all the German states accounts for its maritime character. Surface area is 23.173 km², with a population of 1.776.000 inhabitants (in 2002). Mecklenburg-Vorpommern is one of the former GDR states. With 1.712 km coastline the state has a strong maritime character with access to the Baltic Sea (Rostock). 8 ports, 5 airports, 5 commercial landing strips and 4 special purpose landing strips provide for traffic and transport opportunities. Combined with the motorway network and the freight traffic centre in Rostock the state has a well developed infrastructure and connection to Hamburg’s seaport. In its current political form the state has only been established with the German unification in 1990 (merger of the former GDR-districts Rostock, Schwerin and Neubrandenburg).

The state’s economic structure traditionally is characterised by agriculture, food industry and shipbuilding.

The restructuring of the shipbuilding sector and the establishment of new high-tech shipyards are to be seen as examples of modernisation of the maritime industry (container-, passenger-, tanker, special purpose vessels, military shipbuilding, fishing trawlers, ship repairs and refitting). This sector plays a traditional key role in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern’s industry. Additionally the states has in the past years modernised its Baltic seaports. Other important industrial sectors are agriculture (pig and cattle breeding, chicken farming, grain, rape, sugar beets and potatoes), the food-processing and the tourism industry, which were growing over the years. Especially the tourism industry made the state second (behind Bavaria) of the most popular holiday destination for Germans. Nearly 42% of the total area of the state is arable land with a special agricultural belt from the northwest to the southeast corner of the state. The state is a traditional centre for the manufacturing industry (wood doors, wooden windows, furniture and furniture pieces for the upholstery industry) and wood industry, which is mainly composed by SME. Moreover, the Airbus A 3 XX and the Transrapid are built here.

More recently, a telecommunications infrastructure has been established in the course of economic reconstruction in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. This has created about 6.000 jobs in tele-working (33 major call-centres with over 6000 telephone agents) in the region. Also high-tech companies were set up in the last years, particularly in ICT, bio-tech and life-sciences. In the region Greifswald-Rostock more than 70 bio-tech companies started business in the past years. More than 308 companies (2.000 employees) in different technology centres and the three specialised institutions have started business in medical technology, biomedicine, environment technology, maritime technology, electronics, communications technology, and food technology.

The state hosts 2 universities (the oldest university in northern Europe; Rostock 1419) and many research and development enterprises (Technologie- und Gewerbezentrum Schwerin, Technologie- und Gewerbezentrum Wismar, Rostocker Innovations- und Gründerzentrum, Technologiezentrum Warnemünde, Technologiezentrum Vorpommern Greifswald,Technologie-, Innovations- und Gründerzentrum Neubrandenburg) focussing on high technology, biotechnology and medical technology. Moreover, 4 public institutes of higher education, 1 Max-Planck institute, 2 Fraunhofer installations, 4 public institutes of higher education, over 80 vocational schools and advanced training programs are located here. Due to cost reasons plans for closing certain faculties at both universities for not offering the same range of studies were discussed recently.

Companies: Aker MTW Wismar, A.P. Möller Group, CITRICO, Darguner Brauerei, Carl Kühne, Greifen-Fleisch, Kinderkost Nestlé, Kvaerner Warnow Werft, Meckl. Kartoffel, Meyer Shipyard, Neptune Shipyard, Peene-Shipyard, Stolle, Volkswerft, Warnow Werft.

In 1999 the state held rank 12 in investment per employee in the processing industry.²⁷²

Weaknesses²⁷³ [short description]

Very high unemployment rates, high numbers of insolvencies. Like Brandenburg, Berlin (East), Sachsen, Sachsen-Anhalt, and Thüringen the state still belongs to the "priority 1" regions (regions with maximum subsidization possibilities) supported by the EU structural funds.

Evolution in last decade [short description]

Employment sinking (1992: 757.800 , 2002: 723.800), while the GDP/per capita been growing (1992: 9.180 €, 2002: 16.891 €).²⁷⁴

The economic focus of the region, which in 1990 became Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, was traditionally on agriculture, food industry and shipbuilding. The sort of ‘monoculture’ still today characterises the economy of this state causing the region’s economy being rather crisis-prone than stable.4 out of 6 shipyards have been privatised, restructured and modernised successfully since 1990. By this modernisation the remaining shipyards became the most modern and competitive in Europe. Nevertheless, since 1990 employment figure sank in this sector due to modernisation. Regardless of its access to the Baltic Sea in Rostock, the state has lost relevance for overseas traffic, which is mainly dealt with in Hamburg or Bremen. The trade and traffic between the East coast states could not compensate the losses in this area.

More recently, the region has been modernised in view of the establishment of a modern telecommunications infrastructures. Nevertheless, these efforts could not break the economic monoculture and could not be established extensively. An independent upturn is not to be seen over the whole state area.

Further indicators

Public revenue and spending (mio €) ²⁷⁵

	1999	2000	2001
Revenue	6.734	6.479	6.508
Spending	7.236	7.118	7.058

Employment per sector²⁷⁶ (in 1000)

	Agriculture:	Industry (without building and construction trade):	Building and construction trade:	Trade, tourism, transportation:	Private and Public services^277
1999	38,3	85,8	103,7	196,8	336,7
2000	35,9	84,7	96,5	196,4	338,7
2001	32,5	84,1	84,0	191,5	338,8

Industrial Structure

Branches of processing industry²⁷⁸

Branch	Employment figures
	2000 (June 2000)	2001
Food and tobacco	16.813	14.714
Textile, clothing, leather	1.093	263 (only textile)
Timber	2.924	2.412
Paper, printing, publishing	3.839	3.139
Chemical industry	-	950
Rubber and synthetic material	1.712	1.371
Glas, ceramic, processing of stone and earth	3.888	2.623
Metal (production, working, ..)	11.741	11.626
Mechanical engineering	6.584	2.707
Production of office machines, ICT techniques, optical equipment,…	6.370	4.359
Vehicle production	7.461	7.446
Furniture, jewellery, musical instruments, sports equipment, toys, recycling	7.522	3.969

Investments²⁷⁹

Branch	Investments (1000€) in 2000
	Business (Betrieb)	Enterprises (Unternehmen)
Food and tobacco	91.718	90.026
Textile, clothing, leather	994 (only textile)	-
Timber	234.980	234.209
Paper, printing, publishing	35.471	40.233
Chemical industry	10.281	5.421
Rubber and synthetic material	10.174	10.429
Glas, ceramic, processing of stone and earth	26.702	17.076
Metal (production, working, ..)	87.861	58.206
Mechanical engineering	22.158	22.900
Production of office machines, ICT techniques, optical equipment,…	29.879	20.781
Production of equipment for the production of electricity	16.554	10.662
Vehicle production	26.808	41.758
Furniture, jewellery, musical instruments, sports equipment, toys, recycling	14.704	28.832

Employment in education, higher education and research²⁸⁰

2001/02

28.813

Public expenditure on science and research (1.000 €)²⁸¹

2000

188.412

Students at universities²⁸²

Semester	Beginners	Total number of students
1999/00	5.521	25.830
2000/01	5.782	27.171
2001/02	5.467	28.104

Computer equipment in private households (no. per 100 households)²⁸³

1998

30,4

Internet access or online services (no. per 100 households)²⁸⁴

1998

(3,8)

Telephone equipment of private households (no. per 100 households)²⁸⁵

	1998
ISDN	(2,3)
Telefons	94,1
Mobil	11,3
Answering machines	29,0
Fax/PC fax cart	7,5

Support infrastructure

Infrastructure (categories of streets), in kilometres²⁸⁶

	Motorway (Autobahn)	Federal road (Bundesstraße)	Provincial road (Landesstraße)	District road (Kreisstraße)	Total
1999	262	2.072	3.239	4.130	9.703
2000	336	2.077	3.242	4.123	9.778
2001	354	2.081	3.246	4.124	9.805

Vehicles²⁸⁷

2000	1.006.878
2001	1.041.001
2002	1.051.961

Doctors and dentists²⁸⁸

	1999	2000	2001
Total	5.982	6.024	6.031
dentists	1.533	1.524	1.522
1 doctor per .... inhabitants	300	296	292
1 dentist per ... inhabitants	1.170	1.171	1.156

Designation for principal domestic policy support instruments (5 point scale): 3,7

Territorial Policy	3,7
Public sector transfer	4,7
Employment policy	3,5
Technology policy	3

Mecklenburg-Vorpommern²⁸⁹

MV	Fiscal resources before SHES (in Mio. DM)	Divergence from national average (balance measurement) (= 100)	Contribution / assignment within SHES (in Mio. DM)	Fiscal resources after SHES (in Mio. DM)	Divergence from national average (balance measurement) (= 100)	Supplementary federal grants (in Mio. DM)						Fiscal resources after SHES and Gap-filling grants (in Mio. DM)	Divergence from national average (balance measurement) (= 100)
						Gap-filling grants	Compensations for special political costs	Compensations for special burdens (east Germany)	Transitional grants (west Germany)	Rehabilitational grants Bremen and Saarland	SFH total
1995	6.291	84.6	771	7.062	95.0	335	164	1.479	0	0	1.978	7.397	99.5
1996	6.260	83.6	856	7.116	95.0	337	164	1.479	0	0	1.980	7.453	99.5
1997	6.195	83.6	843	7.038	95.0	333	164	1.479	0	0	1.976	7.371	99.5
1998	6.476	83.7	877	7.353	95.0	348	164	1.479	0	0	1.991	7.701	99.5
1999*	6.757	83.6	921	7.678	95.0	364	164	1.479	0	0	2.007	8.042	99.5
2000*	6.879	83.1	983	7.862	95.0	372	164	1.479	0	0	2.015	8.234	99.5
2001	6.446	83.9	853	7.299	95.0	346	164	1.479	0	0	1.989	7.645	99.5

*) preliminary


Impact on ex-ante divergence from national average of support from EU funds (7 point scale): 6,6

		2000-2006 (mio €)
				ERDF		ESF		EAGGF
		Total	EU contribution	EU contribution	%	EU contribution	%	EU contribution	%
Objetive 1	Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania	5493.088	2455.750	1100.19	44.80%	613.47	24.98%	742.09	30.22%

Impact on ex-ante divergence from national average of domestic policies (7 point scale): 5

Change in standing of region relative to national average in last five and ten years²⁹⁰

	1991	1996	2001
GDP/capita (€)	7.334	14.888	16.500
Population	1.907.700	1.820.300	1.767.800
Employment (persons)	845.600	773.600	734.600
Unemployment (persons)	128.303	171.106	167.938
Unemployment rate	12,5	18,0	19,6

	1995	1997	1999
R+D expenditure (mio €)^291	249	268	291

Estimated effect on regional circumstances of different domestic policies:

	Strongly positive	Slightly positive	Neutral	Slightly negative	Strongly negative
Territorial Policy	X
Public sector transfer	X
Employment policy	X
Technology policy		X