ESPON Day

“What European Territory Today and Tomorrow?”

Brussels, 10 October 2014

Timing: 08h30 –  16h00

Background and Objectives

The ESPON 2013 Programme, the European Observation Network for Territorial Development and Cohesion, which aims at supporting policy development in relation to territorial cohesion and a harmonious development of the European territory, organised its final event under the Communication Plan of the programming period 2007-2013.

Today the demand for policy-relevant evidence is greater than ever before. Policymakers need solid and timely input from the research community in order to assess territorial challenges and propose effective strategies for exploring them.

For more than a decade ESPON has played the key role of supporting policy development by providing comparable pan-European evidence, analyses and scenarios on territorial dynamics that help regions, cities and larger territories in taking evidence-based decisions on their future development.

The ESPON funded projects are defined by policy needs and help improve understanding, formulation, implementation and impact assessment related to policy development at European, national, regional and local levels. Within the current 2013 Programme, ESPON has continued strengthening the pan-European territorial evidence and knowledge, made it useful in analyses together with stakeholders and created supporting tools for policy-makers and practitioners:

• 25 Applied Research projects on a variety of cross-thematic and thematic issues that together provide a substantial amount of new insight and evidence on European territorial trends, perspectives and policy impacts.
• 23 Targeted Analyses using ESPON evidence have been implemented meeting demand from national, regional and local stakeholders in understanding better the European perspective and position of their territories.
• 10 larger projects related to the Scientific Platform and Tools have contributed to the use of the ESPON knowledge and unique database to the benefit of stakeholders including other European Territorial Cooperation programmes as well as regional and urban actors;
• 8 Transnational Networking Activities projects have in different ways supported the capitalisation and awareness-raising of ESPON results at the transnational level as a complement to the pan-European capitalisation done within the programme as such.

Moreover, 16 smaller projects led by the ESPON Managing Authority, each including several actions contracted as service provisions, have supported the implementation of the ESPON 2013 Programme.

Ensuring the continuation of ESPON during 2014-2020, EU Member States together with the four Partner States (Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland), have been working on shaping the Cooperation Programme for ESPON 2020. The programme will address the thematic Objective 11 of the EU Cohesion Policy with the aim of “Enhancing institutional capacity and an efficient public administration”. In doing so, “analyses of development trends in relation to the aims of territorial cohesion” shall support further “strengthening the evidence base in order to reinforce the effectiveness of cohesion policy and the achievement of the thematic objectives through the analysis of development trends.”

Aim and Structure

The ESPON Day ‘What European Territory Today and Tomorrow?’ aimed at presenting main achievements on European territorial evidence from the ESPON 2013 Programme, including a synthesis of main results.

Its purpose was three-fold:

1. To present ESPON 2013 Programme’s achievements including its major projects.
2. To communicate evidence-based policy messages that address major challenges facing cities, regions, countries and Europe.
3. To show how ESPON evidence can help improve policy development adding the European context in many policy areas at the European, national, regional and local levels.

The Third ESPON 2013 Synthesis Report "Territories finding a New Momentum: Evidence for Policy Development, Growth and Investment" was introduced. The Report presents new insights on Europe in the world and its neighbourhood, key territorial partners in Europe including macro-regions, the development of urban and rural areas, as well as areas with geographical specificities.

The event, being organised at the crossroads between two programming periods, provided a bridge to the upcoming specific objectives and new institutional arrangements of ESPON 2020.

Target audience

More than 100 people attended the event, among them policy makers at all levels, practitioners, scientists, experts; stakeholders of ESPON Targeted Analyses; Lead and Project Partners of ESPON projects; ESPON Monitoring Committee Members; ESPON National Contact Points.

When and Where

The ESPON Day took place on 10 October 2014 in Brussels, hosted by the Committee of the Regions.

Committee of the Regions – room JDE 52
Bâtiment Jacques Delors
Rue Belliard 99-101
B-1040 Brussels, Belgium

Further information

Please find below the programme of the ESPON Day and the presentations.

More photos at the next page.

Contact the ESPON Coordination Unit (info@espon.eu) should you need further information.

This event is organised within the framework of the

ESPON Communication Plan - Action Plan for 2014

(Targeted activities and actions/events, “ESPON Final Event”)

“What European Territory Today and Tomorrow?”
 

Brussels, 10 October 2014

Timing: 08h30 – 16h00