Western and Central Europe - Economy and land use
Economy and land use
978-3-14-100890-6 | Page 90 | Ill. 1
Overview
Four characteristic features can be identified in the location structure of industries and services in Central and Western Europe:
- a centre-periphery divide,
- a main axis running, with interruptions, from central England through London, the Benelux countries, the Lower Rhine, the Ruhr, the Rhine-Main and Rhine-Neckar areas to the Basel/Zurich region (known in economic geography as the "blue banana"),
- several metropolitan agglomeration areas (for example London, Paris, Hamburg, Munich),
- several conurbations with a traditionally strong industrial and/or service orientation, such as Halle-Leipzig or Upper Silesia.
These locations are characterised by a diversified economic structure and close networking of companies from the industrial and service sectors.
Economic sectors and industries
How the economic structure has changed in recent decades can be seen, for example, in the production and employment data for the individual economic sectors. The share of the workforce in the secondary sector and its contribution to economic output have declined significantly due to sectoral structural change (tertiarisation), rationalisation and relocation. Typically, industry in Western and Central Europe today has shares of between 15 and 30 percent of the workforce or economic output (GDP). This also applies to the East-Central European states, where the number of industrial employees has shrunk, in some cases considerably, since the beginning of the political-economic transformation process, but the shares of industry are still somewhat above those in Western Europe (> 30%). In parallel, the share of employees in the tertiary sector and its contribution to economic output has increased in all countries. Typical numbers today are between 70 and 80 percent, only in East-Central Europe are they somewhat lower.
The shares of added value, turnover and employment are also shifting within the individual sectors of industry. Two models offer suitable explanatory approaches here:
- The product life cycle model states that every industrial product goes through a cycle divided into phases from the product idea to its exit from the market (development and introduction, growth, maturity, shrinkage). Typical location patterns can be assigned to each of these phases.
- The theory of long waves establishes relationships between basic innovations, their spread and long-term economic development. Five cycles are described. The most important sectors are:
1. coal and steel and textile industries,
2. mechanical engineering and railways,
3. electrical industry, chemical industry and mechanical engineering,
4. electronics, plastics and consumer goods industries, and
5. computer and information technology.
Agriculture
It is still true that good soils, an optimal climate and other natural factors provide favourable conditions for agriculture. This becomes clear when one looks at the spatial correspondence between regions with good soil quality and regions where wheat or sugar beet are grown (northern France, Bördeland landscapes). In many places, the cultivation of wine, fruit and vegetables is based primarily on climatically favourable natural conditions.
However, other structural characteristics - such as optimal farm size, specialisation, degree of mechanisation, proximity to the market - and the EU agricultural market have also gained great influence. In Belgium and the Netherlands, vegetable growing, and in Germany and Denmark, pig farming, are illustrative examples of the loss of importance of natural factors and the growing importance of well-funded, agro-industrial enterprises that operate largely independently of natural conditions.
Agriculture is linked to a significant food processing industry. Despite the relatively small contribution of the primary sector to total economic output, countries such as France, the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany and Denmark are among the largest agricultural exporters worldwide. They hold dominant positions in many products.
Old industrial areas
The starting point and basis of industrialisation in Western and Central Europe was the coal and steel industry (coal and ore mining, iron and steel production). Its economic and regional political significance has declined dramatically in most of the old industrial areas. The structural change took place partly with harsh cuts (e.g. Great Britain), partly mitigated by subsidies and regional support (e.g. Germany).
Today, the iron and steel industry is concentrated in two areas. Inland, there are locations in the old mining areas that have successfully managed a reorientation through rationalisation, process and product innovations as well as international networking (for example in the Ruhr area, Wales, Salzgitter, Lorraine). The newer locations are on the coasts. They benefit from the transport advantages there, because imported raw materials can be obtained directly by sea. The demand for steel on the world market has more than doubled since 1990 and contributed significantly to the stable development of the industry's locations. Today, Europe's share of steel production worldwide is ten per cent, but demand for steel is highly dependent on economic fluctuations.
The textile and clothing industry is also one of the pioneering industries of the old industrial regions. It led to the emergence of specific textile regions (for example in central England). The textile industry has mostly disappeared there today. Only in individual large cities and regions (e.g. Paris, northern Italy) can it still maintain a successful market position in small businesses by exploiting market niches, product innovations and high-quality creations.
Growing industries
Research- and development-intensive growing industries generally prefer centrally located regions with agglomeration advantages (for example, education and research, innovation potential, broad range of services, qualified workforce, transport connections). Clusters of interconnected, highly specialised sub-sectors have become a widespread organisational model that also plays a role in economic development. In the course of the global orientation of most large companies, tasks are divided between the individual locations (for example, administration, research, development and marketing on the one hand, production - often outside the country or the EU - on the other).
Typical "high-tech" industries such as aerospace technology, electronics, photonics and biotechnology have their most important locations in cities such as Munich and in diversified industrial areas with highly qualified entrepreneurs and skilled workers and a long tradition (for example Baden-Württemberg). Locations of multinational corporations sometimes shape entire regions (for example Eindhoven, Wolfsburg).
A special case is aircraft construction. The sites of the Airbus group were distributed among the participating states in accordance with their character as a European cooperation project. Locations such as St-Nazaire or Nantes in France show that regional planning also played a role in the choice of location.
Despite highly efficient production technologies, the automotive industry has a considerable direct and an even more significant indirect impact on employment in some countries. While Germany and France were able to increase their production and the Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary and Slovakia became important assembly sites for foreign companies, the importance of the British and Italian car industries declined.
Raw materials and mining
The most important raw materials in Western and Central Europe are oil and natural gas from the North Sea (cf. map 90.1). They serve as energy sources and as an important raw material for the chemical industry. A pipeline network connects the production areas with the sites of the refineries and the chemical industry, which are preferably located at coastal sites or inland with good transport connections.
Of the coal mining sites shown on the map, only a few are still competitive on an international scale, even though they once formed the basis for the development of entire industrial districts and some of them are still producing coal today. In many places, these sites represent a stage of retreat. Hard coal as an export commodity only plays a certain role for Poland. Lignite mining in Germany, Poland and the Czech Republic is mainly used for on-site electricity generation (locations of thermal power plants).
Transport and services
For years, a core topic of EU transport policy has been the improvement of cross-border mobility of people and goods through the expansion of Trans-European Networks (TENs). The plans concern road, rail and waterways, combined transport (linking different modes of transport), but also airports and seaports. In terms of sustainability, the promotion of rail transport has priority, especially through the expansion of a high-speed network between centres such as London, Paris, Brussels, Amsterdam or Cologne. The continent's main passenger airports are all located in Western and Central Europe, the most important being London Heathrow Airport, followed by Aéroport Paris-Charles de Gaulle and Frankfurt/Main and Amsterdam Schiphol airports. The four largest seaports in Europe are located on the North Sea. Rotterdam, by far the most important European seaport, is followed by Antwerp, Hamburg and Bremen/Bremerhaven. The most important inland port is Duisburg.
A differentiated network of specialised service locations has developed within Europe. Differences in the industry structure are evident between the large agglomerations on the one hand and the peripheral areas on the other. London, Frankfurt/Main, Brussels and Rotterdam are examples of important service locations in the agglomerations. While media and administration dominate in Brussels, Frankfurt/Main and London are transport and financial locations, and the port location of Rotterdam specialises in logistics.
In some peripheral regions, tourism dominates as a leading industry, for example on the French Atlantic coast, on the North Sea coast and in the Alps.
Growing industries
Research- and development-intensive growing industries generally prefer centrally located regions with agglomeration advantages (for example, education and research, innovation potential, broad range of services, qualified workforce, transport connections). Clusters of interconnected, highly specialised sub-sectors have become a widespread organisational model that also plays a role in economic development. In the course of the global orientation of most large companies, tasks are divided between the individual locations (for example, administration, research, development and marketing on the one hand, production - often outside the country or the EU - on the other).
Typical "high-tech" industries such as aerospace technology, electronics, photonics and biotechnology have their most important locations in cities such as Munich and in diversified industrial areas with highly qualified entrepreneurs and skilled workers and a long tradition (for example Baden-Württemberg). Locations of multinational corporations sometimes shape entire regions (for example Eindhoven, Wolfsburg).
A special case is aircraft construction. The sites of the Airbus group were distributed among the participating states in accordance with their character as a European cooperation project. Locations such as St-Nazaire or Nantes in France show that regional planning also played a role in the choice of location.
Despite highly efficient production technologies, the automotive industry has a considerable direct and an even more significant indirect impact on employment in some countries. While Germany and France were able to increase their production and the Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary and Slovakia became important assembly sites for foreign companies, the importance of the British and Italian car industries declined.
