ESPON Open Seminar
“Opportunities and threats for territorial cohesion:
Blue Growth and Urban Poverty”
Nafplion - Greece, 4 and 5 June 2014
ESPON held a two day Open Seminar on “Opportunities and threats for territorial cohesion: Blue Growth and Urban Poverty”. The Seminar was organised in cooperation with the Hellenic Presidency of the Council of the European Union and took place on 4 and 5 June 2014 in Nafplion, Greece.
220 people, including policy makers, practitioners, scientists and experts were welcomed by representatives of the Hellenic EU Presidency, Nafplion Municipality, ESPON Monitoring Committee and Managing Authority.
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The Open Seminar addressed the two priorities of the Hellenic Presidency, namely blue growth and urban poverty, in the context of the current economic crisis with the two-fold purpose of
(1) Allowing policy-makers, practitioners and researchers to share concrete experiences, discuss the use of territorial evidence and identify development options relevant to the two themes;
(2) Demonstrating the usefulness and capability of the ESPON knowledge base for policy-makers, practitioners and researchers alike.
Wednesday 4 June 2014: Blue growth
Welcome and scene setting
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This event took place at the crossroads of two programming periods; while the last projects of the 2007-2013 funding period are wrapping up, European regions and cities are actively engaged in preparing their new Operational Programmes for the 2014 – 2020 Structural Funds period. At the same time, the European Commission is working on the 6th Report on Economic, Social and Territorial Cohesion that will offer new insight into regions’ progress in these areas and how the EU, national and regional governments have contributed.
The first day, which was fully dedicated to blue growth, gave ample opportunity to discuss the sustainable growth potential in maritime areas and the contribution to achieving the goals of the Europe 2020 strategy.
In his welcome statement Ioannis Firbas, Ministry of Development & Competitiveness of Greece, underlined the usefulness of ESPON evidence and data for the drafting of the new Operational Programmes; he also expressed great expectations on the ESPON 2020.
This was followed by opening speeches from Nafplion municipality and ESPON representative introducing the aim of the event. The European Commission offered insight into the new Cohesion Policy for the current European context.
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The seminar began by looking into the maritime dimension in the delivery of the growth and jobs agenda. A subsequent session was more practice oriented, presenting and discussing concrete projects, strategies and policies in the field of maritime policy.
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In parallel workshops ESPON projects reflected on blue development opportunities related to European seas, coasts, islands and the mainland. The workshops provided evidence towards the recognition of blue growth as a key driver to smart, sustainable and inclusive growth. The first day closed with a plenary giving the latest ESPON transnational networking activities an opportunity to exchange on their work.
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Thursday 5 June 2014: Urban poverty
The second day accommodated different thematic plenary sessions that aim at stimulating discussion on the relevant topics and project results. In the first slot, a representative of the European Commission introduced the EU Urban Agenda. This was followed by information on the territorial dimension of poverty in general and allowed relevant ESPON projects to present their final results.
The second plenary session allowed learning about the territorial diversity of impacts of regional resilience to the financial and economic crisis and the visions for Europe in 2050. The last plenary session focused on ESPON Scientific Platform projects and on analytical tools.
The seminar closed with an informative slot on ESPON 2020 the intentions of the Italian Presidency and finally a farewell from the Greek Presidency.
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More information
You can find below the programme and the presentations made during the event.
More photos are available in the next page.
Should you have questions please do not hesitate to contact the ESPON Coordination Unit at info@espon.eu
This event is organised within the framework of the ESPON Capitalisation Strategy
(Actions related to European Seminars and Workshops).
“Opportunities and threats for territorial cohesion:
Blue Growth and Urban Poverty”
Nafplion - Greece, 4 and 5 June 2014
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