The Territorial Dimension of the Europe 2020 Strategy
The contribution of European territories, regions and cities to the Europe 2020 Strategy was the focus of the Open Seminar “ESPON Evidence for Regional Policy-Making” on 9 – 10 June 2010 in Alcalá de Henares – Madrid. In cooperation with the Spanish EU Presidency, ESPON brought more than 200 key policy makers, scientists and experts together for dialogue, based on new facts and evidence provided by ESPON projects, on the territorial dimension and development potentials related to the Europe 2020 Strategy.
Regions and cities all over Europe play an important role in making the Europe 2020 Strategy a success. Understanding its territorial dimensions and potential contributions from European regions and cities raises a number of important questions for policy makers:
- Is a better balanced and polycentric European territory the political objective?
- How can we the best make use of the existing territorial diversity within Europe?
- Which types of regions have what opportunities to contribute to smart, sustainable and inclusive growth?
- Should particular places and cities play a special functional role in integrating Europe in the World?
Conclusions of the Seminar are in preparation and will be published in a special report which will be soon available at the ESPON Website.
Several key messages came out from the roundtable with policy makers:
- “The Europe 2020 Strategy should be the framework for growth for all EU Regions”;
- “Regions are key for the fulfillment of the Europe 2020 Strategy and should be much stronger involved in defining the deliveries”;
- “European Macro-Regions should be part of the strategy implementation”;
- “The 2020 Strategy should take into account not only the GDP, but also use new indicators, measuring the quality of life and the sustainability of the growth”.
The European process has started defining more territorial policy responses in support of the Europe 2020 Strategy. This should continue as territory and place-based approaches matters for its success. The functionality and design of the European territory has impact on European competitiveness and on long-term sustainable living conditions for the Europeans.
ESPON will support this European policy development bringing in new facts and evidence with a European perspective.
Pre-Announcement on New ESPON Calls
New Calls for Proposals on 2 Targeted Analyses and the ESPON Database – Phase II will open on 24 August 2010. The deadline for applying is 19 October 2010. The total available budget is 1.950.000 Euro. All the documentation related to the Calls, including the project specifications, the procedure for applying, the eligibility rules, the evaluation criteria and the submission material, will be made available by 24 August 2010. More reading
Partner Café: Your Tool Finding Partners
Research institutes that are looking for partners to prepare a proposal for one of the projects under the Calls are remembered to have a look at the overview of potential partners. The overview of potential partners now contains 183 potential partners from 25 countries. More
New ESPON Projects
A large number of new projects and expressions of interest selected by the Monitoring Committee are being contracted. The new projects and the people behind them have been shortly introduced at the ESPON Open Seminar in Spain. Find out the new projects here.
ESPON Results and Reports
ReRISK – The Draft Final Report is now online
ESPON ReRISK – Regions at Risk of Energy Poverty has delivered its Draft Final Report. By looking at the impact the energy prices have on the competitiveness and cohesion, regions with similar characteristics have been identified in order to address them by a common set of policies.
The policy recommendations have also taken into account the long-term planning framework in the energy sector, which is described in four qualitative scenarios. Further input was obtained from a survey of 40 regional administrations, from the case studies carried out in several EU regions (Samsø/Denmark, Navarra/Spain, Kalundborg and Landskrona/Sweden and Freiburg/Germany) and from relevant EU policy documents.
In addition to the Draft Final Report, it is of interest to read the discussion paper on impacts of climate change on regional energy systems, which is one of the annexes of the Updated Interim Report and has been elaborated in cooperation with the ESPON Climate Project. Read the Draft Final Report as well as all background documents at the ESPON Website.
ESPON CLIMATE – Interim Report available
The Interim Report of “ESPON Climate – Climate Change and Territorial Effects on Regions and Local Economies in Europe” presents a more detailed overview of the analytical approach to be applied by the project. ESPON Climate, produced by TU Dortmund University as Lead Partner and 13 Project Partners, shall deliver its Draft Final Report on December 2010 and its Final Report on April 2011.
Read the Interim Report as well as all background documents at the ESPON Website.
ESPON Contribution to the INTERACT newsletter “Territorial Cooperation in a Global Context”
The Interact newsletter gives insight into territorial cooperation within the EU borders and beyond. The article from Peter Mehlbye highlights the findings of ESPON’s report “Europe in the World” as well as the reasons behind ESPON’s new project on continental structures and flows under the theme of globalisation. You can now find the newsletter online by clicking here.
Coming Events
Info Day on New Calls, 8 September 2010 in Brussels
In order to support the launch of the next Calls for Proposals, the ESPON 2013 Programme is organising an Information Day on 8 September 2010 in Brussels. A Partner Café will be part of the event. The online registration will open soon at the website.
ESPON Workshops at the Open Days, 5 and 6 October 2010 in Brussels
ESPON will have two workshops during this year’s Open Days which will take place in Brussels on 4-7 October 2010. The first workshop is related to Priority 1/Applied Research and is scheduled for 5 October 2010 at 11h15-13h00. The second workshop is dedicated to Priority 2/Targeted Analyses and will take place on 6 October 2010 at 9h00-10h45. The preliminary programme of the Open Days can be downloaded here
Stakeholder Conference on Targeted Analyses in Brussels under preparation
The ESPON Coordination Unit is currently preparing a Stakeholder Conference on Targeted Analyses. The event will offer an opportunity to learn more about the ongoing ESPON TA and to network with pairs from European regions and cities.
The event aims at presenting and discussing Targeted Analyses, their political relevance for national, regional and local stakeholders and their ability to create a value added. The key question for the conference is the potential contribution of Targeted Analyses to the growth, competitiveness and cohesion of territories and places as well as to cooperation between territories in exploring comparative advantages and harvesting mutual benefits. The best date to bring together key stakeholders is being investigated and will be disseminated soon.
ESPON Internal Seminar, 17 and 18 November 2010 in Liege
The ESPON Coordination Unit in close co-operation with the upcoming Belgian EU Presidency is organising the third internal Seminar under the ESPON 2013 Programme on 17 and 18 November 2010 in Liege.
Past Events
Open Seminar “ESPON Evidence for Regional Policy-Making” – Contributing to the Europe 2020 Strategy
At the two days Open Seminar in Madrid- Alcalá de Henares, the Europe 2020 Strategy and the use of ESPON results in policy-making were the focus of a lively debate.
The seminar gathered more than 200 people coming from European Institutions, national governments, research institutions and universities. The conclusions of the Seminar are in preparation and will be published in a special report which will soon be available at the ESPON Website. The presentations given during the event as well as the photos are available online at the ESPON Website.
ESPON at the RSA International Conference
The Regional Studies Association invited ESPON to organise workshop sessions at the International Conference in Hungary on 24, 25 and 26 May. EDORA, FOCI and ReRISK have been presenting and discussing their scientific results. The papers and the discussions on these papers will be incorporated in the first ESPON Scientific Report. More
Financial Managers Seminar
The third ESPON Financial Managers Seminar took place on 19 May 2010 in Brussels. More than 60 people from 25 countries and 51 Institutions attended the event. More
ESPON Info Day on New Calls and Partner Café
The new ESPON Calls for Proposals were presented during a day of information for potential beneficiaries which took place in Brussels on 18 May 2010.
More than 200 participants from 172 Institutions and 22 countries attended the event, among them policy makers, scientists, experts, representatives of universities, research institutes and private companies. The presentations given during the day are available online.
ESPON Database 2013 – Workshop on 6 May 2010
ESPON in close cooperation with the University Paris 7 – UMS RIATE, as Lead Partner of the ESPON 2013 Database Project, invited for a Workshop aimed at discussing the management of time series and the estimation of missing values. Around 30 experts from all over Europe attended the workshop. The presentations given during the workshop are available online.
Call for Tender
External Evaluation of ESPON 2013 Programme
The Call for Tender “External Evaluation of ESPON 2013 Programme” is open. Deadline for the receipt of tenders is 16 August 2010 by 14h00. More reading
ESPON in Your Country
National Event in Romania on the ESPON Calls for Proposals
The Ministry of Regional Development and Tourism from Romania organised the Seminar “New ESPON financing opportunities for territorial research projects”, which took place in Bucharest on 11 May 2010. The aim of the event was to disseminate and promote the current ESPON Calls for Proposals.
More than 60 participants attended the event. They had the opportunity to learn more about research themes, budget, eligibility conditions, main steps in the formulation of the project proposal and identification of project partners. More information HERE.
Publication from the Czech Partner on the ESPON Projects “Projekty programu ESPON”
The ESPON Monitoring Committee Member in cooperation with the Contact Point from the Czech Republic recently published an interesting overview of the ESPON Projects. The publication includes the main research areas and the lead and project partners of the ESPON Projects. You can download the publication here.
“How can European spatial planners assess territorial cohesion?” – Conference in Edinburgh on 21 May 2010
Spatial plans have a key role to play in the assessment of how policies for sectors such as transport or environment impact on territorial cohesion. This was the key conclusion from a one-day conference of European planners in Edinburgh on May 21 organised by ECTP-CEU, the Royal Town Planning Institute and the ESPON UK Contact Point. More reading
News from URBACT
URBACT has published on its website a Survey on the impact of the economic crisis and the responses of URBACT cities. The study started in September 2009 and the survey was sent to all 221 cities participating in the first Call for URBACT projects. The report written by Yamina Guidoum and Paul Soto presents the results of the survey.
Read more:
Report of the “Survey on the impact of the economic crisis and the responses of URBACT II cities”, April 2010 – PDF
Economic Crisis: Cities’ Responses and Resources – URBACT website
News from INTERREG IVC
The INTERREG IVC Joint Technical Secretariat in Lille has two positions available within its Finance team. Closing date for applications: Friday 16 July 2010. The profiles, along with general information and instructions for applying, can be downloaded here.
Pre-Announcement on New ESPON Calls
New Calls for Proposals on 2 Targeted Analyses and the ESPON Database – Phase II will open on 24 August 2010. The deadline for applying is 19 October 2010. The total available budget is 1.950.000 Euro.
The Calls are the following:
- Call for Proposals for 2 Targeted Analyses (Priority 2 of the ESPON 2013 Programme)
- Call for Proposals for ESPON Database Project Phase II (Priority 3 of the ESPON 2013 Programme)
All the documentation related to the Calls, including the project specifications, the procedure for applying, the eligibility rules, the evaluation criteria and the submission material, will be made available by 24 August 2010. More reading
ReRISK – The Draft Final Report is now online
ESPON ReRISK – Regions at Risk of Energy Poverty has delivered its Draft Final Report. By looking at the impact the energy prices have on the competitiveness and cohesion, regions with similar characteristics have been identified in order to address them by a common set of policies.
The policy recommendations have also taken into account the long-term planning framework in the energy sector, which is described in four qualitative scenarios. Further input was obtained from a survey of 40 regional administrations, from the case studies carried out in several EU regions (Samsø/Denmark, Navarra/Spain, Kalundborg and Landskrona/Sweden and Freiburg/Germany) and from relevant EU policy documents.
In addition to the Draft Final Report, it is of interest to read the discussion paper on impacts of climate change on regional energy systems, which is one of the annexes of the Updated Interim Report and has been elaborated in cooperation with the ESPON Climate Project. It is assumed that climate change will in general lead to more extreme weather conditions, putting additional pressure on the energy infrastructure in terms of production, transport and distribution. Among other finding, the discussion paper shows expected climate change impacts on energy production as well as demand. Also policy options are proposed to minimize the possible risks on regional level.
ESPON ReRISK, produced by Innobasque as Lead Partner, Nordregio – Nordic Centre for Spatial Development and National Technical University of Athens as Project Partners shall deliver its Final Report on 31 July 2010.
Read the Draft Final Report as well as all background documents at the ESPON Website.
ESPON Ireland Activities
A new ESPON Ireland website will be launched shortly. The website will be designed to promote the use of ESPON and related European spatial planning research in Ireland and to facilitate a dialogue between policy, practice and academic research communities. It will also provide a portal for information on future ESPON calls for proposals and expressions of interest.
We are particularly interested in supporting both the development of evidence-based ‘core strategies’ for City/County Development Plans as provided for in the current Planning and Development (Amendment) Bill and the monitoring of Regional Planning Guidelines by Regional Authorities. Please see do not hesitate to contact us by email or telephone (see contact details below).
The Territorial Dimension of the Europe 2020 Strategy
The contribution of European territories, regions and cities to the Europe 2020 Strategy was the focus of the Open Seminar “ESPON Evidence for Regional Policy-Making” on 9 – 10 June 2010 in Alcalá de Henares – Madrid. In cooperation with the Spanish EU Presidency, ESPON brought more than 200 key policy makers, scientists and experts together for dialogue, based on new facts and evidence provided by ESPON projects, on the territorial dimension and development potentials related to the Europe 2020 Strategy.
Regions and cities all over Europe play an important role in making the Europe 2020 Strategy a success. Understanding its territorial dimensions and potential contributions from European regions and cities raises a number of important questions for policy makers:
- Is a better balanced and polycentric European territory the political objective?
- How can we the best make use of the existing territorial diversity within Europe?
- Which types of regions have what opportunities to contribute to smart, sustainable and inclusive growth?
- Should particular places and cities play a special functional role in integrating Europe in the World?
Conclusions of the Seminar are in preparation and will be published in a special report which will be soon available at the ESPON Website.
Several key messages came out from the roundtable with policy makers:
- “The Europe 2020 Strategy should be the framework for growth for all EU Regions”;
- “Regions are key for the fulfillment of the Europe 2020 Strategy and should be much stronger involved in defining the deliveries”;
- “European Macro-Regions should be part of the strategy implementation”;
- “The 2020 Strategy should take into account not only the GDP, but also use new indicators, measuring the quality of life and the sustainability of the growth”.
The European process has started defining more territorial policy responses in support of the Europe 2020 Strategy. This should continue as territory and place-based approaches matters for its success. The functionality and design of the European territory has impact on European competitiveness and on long-term sustainable living conditions for the Europeans.
ESPON will support this European policy development bringing in new facts and evidence with a European perspective.
Pre-Announcement on New ESPON Calls
New Calls for Proposals on 2 Targeted Analyses and the ESPON Database – Phase II will open on 24 August 2010. The deadline for applying is 19 October 2010. The total available budget is 1.950.000 Euro. All the documentation related to the Calls, including the project specifications, the procedure for applying, the eligibility rules, the evaluation criteria and the submission material, will be made available by 24 August 2010. More reading
Partner Café: Your Tool Finding Partners
Research institutes that are looking for partners to prepare a proposal for one of the projects under the Calls are remembered to have a look at the overview of potential partners. The overview of potential partners now contains 183 potential partners from 25 countries. More
New ESPON Projects
A large number of new projects and expressions of interest selected by the Monitoring Committee are being contracted. The new projects and the people behind them have been shortly introduced at the ESPON Open Seminar in Spain. Find out the new projects here.
ESPON Results and Reports
ReRISK – The Draft Final Report is now online
ESPON ReRISK – Regions at Risk of Energy Poverty has delivered its Draft Final Report. By looking at the impact the energy prices have on the competitiveness and cohesion, regions with similar characteristics have been identified in order to address them by a common set of policies.
The policy recommendations have also taken into account the long-term planning framework in the energy sector, which is described in four qualitative scenarios. Further input was obtained from a survey of 40 regional administrations, from the case studies carried out in several EU regions (Samsø/Denmark, Navarra/Spain, Kalundborg and Landskrona/Sweden and Freiburg/Germany) and from relevant EU policy documents.
In addition to the Draft Final Report, it is of interest to read the discussion paper on impacts of climate change on regional energy systems, which is one of the annexes of the Updated Interim Report and has been elaborated in cooperation with the ESPON Climate Project. Read the Draft Final Report as well as all background documents at the ESPON Website.
ESPON CLIMATE – Interim Report available
The Interim Report of “ESPON Climate – Climate Change and Territorial Effects on Regions and Local Economies in Europe” presents a more detailed overview of the analytical approach to be applied by the project. ESPON Climate, produced by TU Dortmund University as Lead Partner and 13 Project Partners, shall deliver its Draft Final Report on December 2010 and its Final Report on April 2011.
Read the Interim Report as well as all background documents at the ESPON Website.
ESPON Contribution to the INTERACT newsletter “Territorial Cooperation in a Global Context”
The Interact newsletter gives insight into territorial cooperation within the EU borders and beyond. The article from Peter Mehlbye highlights the findings of ESPON’s report “Europe in the World” as well as the reasons behind ESPON’s new project on continental structures and flows under the theme of globalisation. You can now find the newsletter online by clicking here.
Coming Events
Info Day on New Calls, 8 September 2010 in Brussels
In order to support the launch of the next Calls for Proposals, the ESPON 2013 Programme is organising an Information Day on 8 September 2010 in Brussels. A Partner Café will be part of the event. The online registration will open soon at the website.
ESPON Workshops at the Open Days, 5 and 6 October 2010 in Brussels
ESPON will have two workshops during this year’s Open Days which will take place in Brussels on 4-7 October 2010. The first workshop is related to Priority 1/Applied Research and is scheduled for 5 October 2010 at 11h15-13h00. The second workshop is dedicated to Priority 2/Targeted Analyses and will take place on 6 October 2010 at 9h00-10h45. The preliminary programme of the Open Days can be downloaded here
Stakeholder Conference on Targeted Analyses in Brussels under preparation
The ESPON Coordination Unit is currently preparing a Stakeholder Conference on Targeted Analyses. The event will offer an opportunity to learn more about the ongoing ESPON TA and to network with pairs from European regions and cities.
The event aims at presenting and discussing Targeted Analyses, their political relevance for national, regional and local stakeholders and their ability to create a value added. The key question for the conference is the potential contribution of Targeted Analyses to the growth, competitiveness and cohesion of territories and places as well as to cooperation between territories in exploring comparative advantages and harvesting mutual benefits. The best date to bring together key stakeholders is being investigated and will be disseminated soon.
ESPON Internal Seminar, 17 and 18 November 2010 in Liege
The ESPON Coordination Unit in close co-operation with the upcoming Belgian EU Presidency is organising the third internal Seminar under the ESPON 2013 Programme on 17 and 18 November 2010 in Liege.
Past Events
Open Seminar “ESPON Evidence for Regional Policy-Making” – Contributing to the Europe 2020 Strategy
At the two days Open Seminar in Madrid- Alcalá de Henares, the Europe 2020 Strategy and the use of ESPON results in policy-making were the focus of a lively debate.
The seminar gathered more than 200 people coming from European Institutions, national governments, research institutions and universities. The conclusions of the Seminar are in preparation and will be published in a special report which will soon be available at the ESPON Website. The presentations given during the event as well as the photos are available online at the ESPON Website.
ESPON at the RSA International Conference
The Regional Studies Association invited ESPON to organise workshop sessions at the International Conference in Hungary on 24, 25 and 26 May. EDORA, FOCI and ReRISK have been presenting and discussing their scientific results. The papers and the discussions on these papers will be incorporated in the first ESPON Scientific Report. More
Financial Managers Seminar
The third ESPON Financial Managers Seminar took place on 19 May 2010 in Brussels. More than 60 people from 25 countries and 51 Institutions attended the event. More
ESPON Info Day on New Calls and Partner Café
The new ESPON Calls for Proposals were presented during a day of information for potential beneficiaries which took place in Brussels on 18 May 2010.
More than 200 participants from 172 Institutions and 22 countries attended the event, among them policy makers, scientists, experts, representatives of universities, research institutes and private companies. The presentations given during the day are available online.
ESPON Database 2013 – Workshop on 6 May 2010
ESPON in close cooperation with the University Paris 7 – UMS RIATE, as Lead Partner of the ESPON 2013 Database Project, invited for a Workshop aimed at discussing the management of time series and the estimation of missing values. Around 30 experts from all over Europe attended the workshop. The presentations given during the workshop are available online.
Call for Tender
External Evaluation of ESPON 2013 Programme
The Call for Tender “External Evaluation of ESPON 2013 Programme” is open. Deadline for the receipt of tenders is 16 August 2010 by 14h00. More reading
ESPON in Your Country
National Event in Romania on the ESPON Calls for Proposals
The Ministry of Regional Development and Tourism from Romania organised the Seminar “New ESPON financing opportunities for territorial research projects”, which took place in Bucharest on 11 May 2010. The aim of the event was to disseminate and promote the current ESPON Calls for Proposals.
More than 60 participants attended the event. They had the opportunity to learn more about research themes, budget, eligibility conditions, main steps in the formulation of the project proposal and identification of project partners. More information HERE.
Publication from the Czech Partner on the ESPON Projects “Projekty programu ESPON”
The ESPON Monitoring Committee Member in cooperation with the Contact Point from the Czech Republic recently published an interesting overview of the ESPON Projects. The publication includes the main research areas and the lead and project partners of the ESPON Projects. You can download the publication here.
“How can European spatial planners assess territorial cohesion?” – Conference in Edinburgh on 21 May 2010
Spatial plans have a key role to play in the assessment of how policies for sectors such as transport or environment impact on territorial cohesion. This was the key conclusion from a one-day conference of European planners in Edinburgh on May 21 organised by ECTP-CEU, the Royal Town Planning Institute and the ESPON UK Contact Point. More reading
News from URBACT
URBACT has published on its website a Survey on the impact of the economic crisis and the responses of URBACT cities. The study started in September 2009 and the survey was sent to all 221 cities participating in the first Call for URBACT projects. The report written by Yamina Guidoum and Paul Soto presents the results of the survey.
Read more:
Report of the “Survey on the impact of the economic crisis and the responses of URBACT II cities”, April 2010 – PDF
Economic Crisis: Cities’ Responses and Resources – URBACT website
News from INTERREG IVC
The INTERREG IVC Joint Technical Secretariat in Lille has two positions available within its Finance team. Closing date for applications: Friday 16 July 2010. The profiles, along with general information and instructions for applying, can be downloaded here.
Pre-Announcement on New ESPON Calls
New Calls for Proposals on 2 Targeted Analyses and the ESPON Database – Phase II will open on 24 August 2010. The deadline for applying is 19 October 2010. The total available budget is 1.950.000 Euro.
The Calls are the following:
- Call for Proposals for 2 Targeted Analyses (Priority 2 of the ESPON 2013 Programme)
- Call for Proposals for ESPON Database Project Phase II (Priority 3 of the ESPON 2013 Programme)
All the documentation related to the Calls, including the project specifications, the procedure for applying, the eligibility rules, the evaluation criteria and the submission material, will be made available by 24 August 2010. More reading
ReRISK – The Draft Final Report is now online
ESPON ReRISK – Regions at Risk of Energy Poverty has delivered its Draft Final Report. By looking at the impact the energy prices have on the competitiveness and cohesion, regions with similar characteristics have been identified in order to address them by a common set of policies.
The policy recommendations have also taken into account the long-term planning framework in the energy sector, which is described in four qualitative scenarios. Further input was obtained from a survey of 40 regional administrations, from the case studies carried out in several EU regions (Samsø/Denmark, Navarra/Spain, Kalundborg and Landskrona/Sweden and Freiburg/Germany) and from relevant EU policy documents.
In addition to the Draft Final Report, it is of interest to read the discussion paper on impacts of climate change on regional energy systems, which is one of the annexes of the Updated Interim Report and has been elaborated in cooperation with the ESPON Climate Project. It is assumed that climate change will in general lead to more extreme weather conditions, putting additional pressure on the energy infrastructure in terms of production, transport and distribution. Among other finding, the discussion paper shows expected climate change impacts on energy production as well as demand. Also policy options are proposed to minimize the possible risks on regional level.
ESPON ReRISK, produced by Innobasque as Lead Partner, Nordregio – Nordic Centre for Spatial Development and National Technical University of Athens as Project Partners shall deliver its Final Report on 31 July 2010.
Read the Draft Final Report as well as all background documents at the ESPON Website.
ESPON Ireland Activities
A new ESPON Ireland website will be launched shortly. The website will be designed to promote the use of ESPON and related European spatial planning research in Ireland and to facilitate a dialogue between policy, practice and academic research communities. It will also provide a portal for information on future ESPON calls for proposals and expressions of interest.
We are particularly interested in supporting both the development of evidence-based ‘core strategies’ for City/County Development Plans as provided for in the current Planning and Development (Amendment) Bill and the monitoring of Regional Planning Guidelines by Regional Authorities. Please see do not hesitate to contact us by email or telephone (see contact details below).
