The European Commission, in the definition of its Industrial Strategy (March 2020), favours the adoption of an analysis perspective based on the 14 industrial ecosystems listed in Table 1.

Table 1: List of ecosystems

  1. Aerospace & defence
  2. Agri-food
  3. Construction
  4. Cultural and creative industries (CCI)
  5. Digital
  6. Electronics
  7. Energy-intensive industries (EII)
  8. Energy-renewables
  9. Health
  10. Mobility-Transport-Automotive
  11. Proximity, social economy and civil society
  12. Retail
  13. Textiles
  14. Tourism

These ecosystems are not distributed evenly across European regions, with some regions accumulating a larger (or smaller) share of employment in each ecosystem than others. A new typology of regions has been created based on:

  1. Regional specialisation in ecosystems: which ecosystems regions are specialised in
  2. Regional relevance of ecosystems: whether ecosystems amount at least to 1% of total regional employment

Based on these two criteria, a typology of seven groups of regions has been identified:

  • Group 1: Agri-textile

This group contains regions that present a clear orientation towards specialization in the agri-food and textile ecosystems. Regions come mainly from countries in Southern and Eastern Europe:  Italy (10 regions, from both North and South), Spain, Romania, and Bulgaria (5 regions each), Poland (3 regions), Portugal (3 regions), and a single region from Greece, Lithuania, Austria, and Hungary.

  • Group 2: Agri-tourism

This group contains 22 regions with significant average specialization in the agri-food and tourism ecosystems. The majority are from countries in Southern Europe: Greece (11 regions, 50% of the cluster), Portugal (3 regions), Spain (2 regions), and one region each from Austria, Finland, Cyprus and Croatia.

  • Group 3: Energy/industry

The 35 regions in this group have significant average specialisation in the energy-intensive industries and renewable energy ecosystems. In addition, their average LQ is greater than 1 in a further 6 ecosystems, suggestive of a broad industrial character. They are mainly from Eastern European countries:  Poland (11 regions), Czech Republic (7 regions), Slovenia (5 regions), Hungary (3 regions), and others such as Upper Austria, Rhineland (Germany), Estonia, West Macedonia (Greece), Centre-Portugal, and Centre Romania.

  • Group 4: Creative/digital/capitals

The regions in this group have significant average specialisation in the cultural and creative industries and digital ecosystems, and their average LQ is also greater than 1 in the retail and tourism ecosystems. Above all, these are regions containing national capital cities (Paris, Prague, Brussels, Wien, Helsinki, Budapest, Lisbon, Amsterdam, Warsaw, Stockholm, Bratislava, Berlin, Luxembourg) or large cities in each country (Hamburg, Malmö, Gothenburg, Utrecht).

  • Group 5: Health/local

The 21 regions in this group have significant average specialisation in the health ecosystem, alongside averages of greater than 1 in the retail, proximity (social) and construction ecosystems. The component regions are from the more developed countries in Europe: Netherlands (6 regions), Belgium (3 regions), Germany (2 regions), Denmark (4 regions), France (4 regions), and one each from Italy and Ireland.

  • Group 6: Electronics/mobility

The 17 regions in this group have significant average specialisation in the electronics ecosystem, complemented by a moderate presence of energy, health, mobility, aerospace and construction. Most regions come from Germany (5 regions), Austria (2 regions), Hungary (2 regions) and France (2 regions), with single regions also from Finland, Ireland, Italy, Poland, Romania and Slovakia.

  • Group 7: Non-specialised/diversified

The largest group of 50 regions are characterized by the lack of a clear pattern of specialization in any of the ecosystems. A moderate average LQ is observed in the construction, health, proximity (social) and tourism ecosystems. Most regions come from Western Europe and Southern Europe, particularly from France and Spain (11 regions each), Italy (6 regions), Germany (5 regions), and Netherlands (4 regions).