Welcome to the seventh electronic ESPON 2013 Newsletter. It offers information on the latest developments of the ESPON Programme.

Understanding and monitoring the foot print of the global economic recession on regions, cities and larger territories are in high demand. The financial sector sends mixed signals on a bettering or worsening of the crisis. The media informs daily on sectors and production plants being shot down in specific places causing social stress from the laid off employees. Some citizens mostly in central and eastern areas of Europe seem to reverse the move from rural to urban locations.

Territories relating highly on export seem to be more vulnerable. However, many sectors of the economy are apparently still doing well, even at a lower level of growth. Politicians see synergies coupling the economic recovery and climate change issues by promoting green technologies. Other politicians see the creative economy as a driver for innovation and growth. Many conferences address these issues. Many more will do so in the months ahead. To mention but one, lately the OECD took an important initiative hosting an important policy event in Paris on the Global Crisis and Regional responses.

Comprehensive evidence at European scale on the territorial impact of the current economic situation is very difficult to produce with short notice due to the rapidity of the change in 2008 in world wide economic conditions and the delay in data production. This is also hampering the ESPON Programme in providing immediate significant support on the issue to policy considerations related to European territorial cohesion and development. However, discussions at the next open ESPON Seminar on 3-4 June 2009 in Prague as well as the new ESPON applied research projects being launched later this year will all make contributions to better understanding the variety of impacts from the global economic recession hitting the regions and cities of Europe.

The launch of the next calls for proposals and expression of interest awaits the final clarifications on the management and control system of the ESPON Programme which are currently underway. The opening of the calls is expected just before or just after the upcoming summer break. Good news is that private bodies and companies will be able to join the project teams as partners in future ESPON projects of applied research, in projects providing targeted analysis in cooperation with stakeholders and in projects related to progress on the scientific platform for European territorial science.
 

Peter Mehlbye
Director ESPON Coordination Unit

In cooperation with the Czech EU Presidency, the ESPON Programme is organising an Open Seminar addressing Territorial Development Opportunities during the Global Economic Recession for regions, cities and larger territories. In the light of discussing impacts of the current global economic challenges join us on 3 – 4 June 2009 in Prague to debate territorial development opportunities based on ideas and evidence from ESPON projects.

The ESPON 2013 Programme organises a workshop on 6 May 2009 aiming at creating awareness of ESPON results and support their use in policymaking at European level. The Workshop will allow in particular officials and policymakers working in European Institutions to discuss the way ESPON results might support them and what expectations they have in this respect towards the ESPON 2013 Programme. More

This month ESPON shows the territorial trends 2001-2006 in potential accessibility by air. High accessibility is often considered a prerequisite for economic development, for attracting investors, increasing employment and building networks of cities. In general, the highest level of potential accessibility is associated with the central regions of the European territory. A more balanced picture is emerging, revealing a relative increase of the attractiveness and potentials for economic development in regions and cities outside the core area of Europe, and in particular in the EU Member States to the East. More

The workshop welcomed more than 50 participants, a mix of cartographers, artists, media people, scientists, practitioners and policy makers for a first dialogue on innovative visualisation tools and cartographic language. The lively discussion centred around four key messages: the target groups to be addressed – whether they are for example policy makers, the media, practitioners or the wider public – have to be defined clearly. Accordingly, the development of a respective toolbox should take place – taking into account and enhancing existing tools. To meet the demands of the target groups, the cartographic language used (amongst others symbols/icons, geo design, animations) is to be selected correspondingly. Finally, the way and place – on the web or in print publications – of presenting innovative visualisation and cartographic language is to be chosen adequately. The presentations given during the Workshop are available here.

The Dutch Ministry of Housing, Spatial Planning and the Environment organised an EU seminar on Territorial Impact of EU policies on 5 March 2009 in Amsterdam. One of the seminar workshops was dedicated to the policy support ESPON delivers. Prof. Roberto Camagni (Politecnico di Milano) presented the policy support tool that the applied research project ESPON project TIPTAP - Territorial Impact Package for Transport and Agricultural Policies - is developing. More information can be found on the seminar website.

Based on a regular exchange with EUROSTAT, the ESPON 2013 Programme attended the Annual GISS Meeting. It presented the programme implementation status, the Territorial Observation No 1 as well as an overview of ongoing applied research and targeted analysis projects and the ESPON 2013 Database Project. Professor Claude Grasland, representing the University Paris Diderot as Project Lead Partner, presented first findings of this project. The more than 50 national mapping agencies and national statistical offices being present very much appreciated the mission, approach and findings of the ESPON 2013 Programme.

The Call for Expression of Interest for the Knowledge Support System aimed at enlarging the existing pool of experts in the field of territorial research and analysis, in particular in themes such as “Land use”, “Accessibility”, “Innovation” and “Globalisation”. The Call received altogether 58 applications. The ESPON Monitoring Committee will approve applications meeting the evaluation criteria to be included in the ESPON Knowledge Support System at its meeting on 2 June 2009.

A Seminar on financial management and administration of projects took place on 31 March 2009 for financial managers of Lead and Project Partners of approved projects in the second round of calls launched in August 2008. Information about e.g. eligibility rules, programme manual, subsidy contract, reporting and monitoring procedures and requirements have been given, as well as information about administrative, legal and practical matters of relevance concerning project coordination and management.

The ESPON Partner Café is an opportunity to find partners for setting up Transnational Project Groups aiming at submitting proposals for ESPON projects. 45 institutions from 17 European countries have already taken the opportunity to be included in the overview compiled by ESPON. Your institution can be part of the Partner Café by submitting the “Partner Information Form” available at the ESPON Website. More

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