Reminder ESPON Seminar

"Revealing territorial potentials and shaping new policies - Contribution to the post-2020 Cohesion policy debate"

Valletta, 24 and 25 May 2017 - Join the ESPON Seminar and actively contribute to the interactive debate on future of EU Cohesion policy with representatives of the European Commission, European Parliament, umbrella organizations, OECD and Member States.

At the two-day event we will also discuss an integrated approach to promote development in territories with geographic specificities, which is one of the themes of the Maltese EU Presidency.
This event will give the opportunity to join researchers, policymakers, stakeholders and experts and together reflect on the main opportunities and development challenges Europe, its regions and cities are facing based on the latest available territorial evidence.

Some confirmed speakers:

• Peter Austin, City of Oslo, NO (via web)
• Kai Böhme, Spatial Foresight, LU
• Roberta Capello, Politecnico di Milano, IT
• Greg Clark, Greg Clark Ltd, UK
• Thiemo Eser, ESPON Managing Authority, LU
• Erik Gløersen, Spatial Foresight, LU
• David Hope, Coventry City Council, UK
• Tine Jeppesen, Copenhagen Economics, DK
• Ruut Louwers, Interreg North West Europe
• Jiannis Kaucic , ÖIR GmbH, AT
• Marco Kellenberger, Swiss Federal Office for Spatial Development (ARE), CH
• Tomasz Komornicki, Polish Academy of Sciences, PL
• Mathilde Konstantopoulou, ESPON Monitoring Committee Greece
• Mario Mazzocca, Abruzzo Region, IT
• Oliver Mueller, Eurostat
• Maria Pia Pace, ESPON Monitoring Committee Malta
• Jean Peyrony, Mission Opérationnelle Transfrontalière (MOT), FR
• Ilona Raugze, ESPON EGTC, LU
• Manuela Samek, Istituto per la Ricerca Sociale, IT
• Magdalena Zagrzejewska, Ministry of Economic Development, Department of Development Strategy, PL

See the full programme here.

Registration by Wednesday 10 May 2017 at 15h00 online here.

The event is organised in cooperation with the Maltese Presidency of the Council of the EU within the framework of the ESPON 2020 Cooperation Programme.

Open Calls for Tenders for Applied Research

The ESPON EGTC has launched four Calls for Tenders for Applied Research activities as follows:

1. Impacts of refugee flows to territorial development in Europe, deadline 2 June 2017 at 10:30

2. Circular Economy and Territorial Consequences, deadline 22 May 2017 at 10:30

3. Financial Instruments and Territorial Cohesion, deadline 22 May 2017 at 10:00

4. Green infrastructure and ecosystem services, deadline is 5 May 2017 at 10:00

Further information at the here.

Targeted Analyses Activities - Prior information

The ESPON EGTC will tender 4 service contracts for Targeted Analyses as follows:

1) Alps2050 – Common spatial perspectives for the Alpine Space. Towards a common vision.

Lead stakeholder: Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure, Department of European Spatial Development / Territorial Cohesion (Germany)

Objective of the analysis: Alps2050 will produce common spatial perspectives to strengthen territorial cooperation among Alpine countries towards more effective sustainable development.

2) Cross-border Public Services (CPS)

Lead stakeholder: Region Sonderjylland – Schleswig Joint Secretariat & Infocenter (Denmark)

Objective of the analysis: CPS will identify and map existing cross-border public services; create the basis for improving existing and developing new services; generate awareness about the added value of CPS and exchange experiences and best practices.

3) Future Digital Health in the EU

Lead stakeholder: Ministry of Finance, Regional Development Department (Estonia)

Objective of the analysis: This activity will analyse digital health solutions and policies in study areas which foster development of data-driven healthcare and eHealth services, identify bottlenecks, and propose policy recommendations.

4) Cultural Heritage (CH) as a strategic territorial development resource; mapping impacts through a set of common European socio-economic indicators.

Lead stakeholder: Norwegian Directorate for Cultural Heritage (Norway)

Objective of the analysis: To formulate a set of socioeconomic indicators for immovable CH that is meaningful and internationally comparable and to provide data for these indicators for a selection of European countries/regions.

ESPON Policy Brief

“Shaping new policies in specific types of territories in Europe: islands, mountains, sparsely populated and coastal regions”

Article 174 of the Lisbon Treaty states that “In order to promote its overall harmonious development, the Union shall develop and pursue its actions leading to the strengthening of its economic, social and territorial cohesion. In particular, the Union shall aim at reducing disparities between the levels of development of the various regions and the backwardness of the least favoured regions. Among the regions concerned, particular attention shall be paid to rural areas, areas affected by industrial transition, and regions which suffer from severe and permanent natural or demographic handicaps such as the northernmost regions with very low population density and island, cross-border and mountain regions”.

Within Europe these regions have unique geographical characteristics in which the identification of competitive opportunities is linked to their specific advantages and territorial assets. These vary by region and the key policy questions are:

• How to better explore these unique assets?
• How to reduce and overcome development challenges?

At the initiative of the Maltese Presidency of the Council of the European Union, ESPON presents territorial observations and policy messages on key development patterns of territories with geographic specificities: coastal areas, islands, mountains and sparsely populated regions.

The ESPON Policy Brief and the background Working Paper, including maps, are available here.

Interim Report of ESPON Locate

One of the major challenges Europe’s regions and cities are confronted with is climate change and its potential physical, social, economic, environmental and cultural impacts. Climate change adaptation measures should help to moderate harmful effects and/or exploit beneficial opportunities for cities and regions.

The ESPON Applied Research activity Locate – Territories and low-carbon economy, shall answer three main policy questions:

• What do energy consumption patterns look like in European regions and cities? How have they changed over the past 10 years?
• Are there particular types of regions and cities that find it easier in making full use of their renewable energy potential? How could challenges existing in this context be overcome in different types of territories?
• What kind of action/policy is needed in what type of region/city to ensure a smooth transition to a low-carbon economy/lifestyle? How can regions and cities create framework conditions for unlocking low-carbon investment by the private sector?

The lead contractor, ÖIR-Austrian Institute for Regional Studies and Spatial Planning (AT) and the 3 partners (Energy Economics Group-Vienna University of Technology, Fraunhofer Institute for Systems and Innovation Research, Global Urban Research Unit-Newcastle University) delivered the Interim Report which provides interim results and information on the ongoing work and informs about the plan to fulfill the envisaged tasks.

ESPON Locate Inception Report is available here.

Inception Report of COMPASS

In the late 1990’s the European Commission published the ‘EU Compendium on Spatial Planning Systems and Policies’ which covered the 15 EU member states at that time. Since then there have been significant developments in pan-European territorial and cohesion policies.

The ESPON Applied Research activity COMPASS – Comparative Analysis of Territorial Governance and Spatial Planning Systems in Europe, shall answer three main policy questions:

• What changes in territorial governance and spatial planning systems and policies can be observed across Europe over the past 15 years? Can these changes be attributed to the influence of macro-level EU directives and policies?
• What are best-practices for cross-fertilisation of spatial and territorial development policies with EU Cohesion Policy?How can national/regional spatial and territorial development policy perspectives be better reflected in Cohesion Policy and other policies at the EU scale?

The lead contractor, TU Delft (NL) and the 24 partners, delivered the Inception Report which provides a description of the conceptual and methodological framework, an overview of qualitative data and other documentary sources to be collected and used.

COMPASS Inception Report is available here.

Vacancy at the ESPON EGTC

The ESPON EGTC is looking for a Lawyer/European and Luxembourg law for a fixed-term period of one year. The deadline for applying is 12 May 2017 at 16h00.

Further information.

ESPON in Your Country - Czech Republic

The ESPON Contact Point in Czech Republic, Institute for Spatial Development, has translated the publication ESPON ATLAS "Mapping European Territorial Structures and Dynamics".

The Czech version of the Atlas is available here.

For further information, contact Lubor Fridrich.