ESPON Seminar

“Territory matters:

Keeping Europe and its regions competitive”

in Amsterdam, 16 and 17 June 2016

The territorial dimension of the European regional competitiveness and the use of territorial evidence in relation to policy development are more and more important for regions and cities. This has also been recognised by the Dutch Presidency of the Council of the EU that highlights the importance of focusing on growth and jobs.

Policy makers, stakeholders, practitioners, scientists and experts who want to share their experience and learn from others are invited to gather and discuss themes and experiences relevant for the development of regions and cities at the ESPON seminar.

This ESPON Seminar offers an excellent meeting, networking and discussion forum and brings together policy makers, academics and experts to share latest territorial evidence and to debate issues and challenges around themes relating to the regional competitiveness. Keynote speakers will give deep insight and latest knowledge during the seminar.

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

Programme

The seminar programme will consist of a mix of high profile keynote presentations, themed sessions and panel discussion. In this context the following themes will be taken up during the event:

• Competitiveness of European regions
• Impact of EU policy on national spatial planning
• Urban Agenda
• Polycentric development at different scales
• Cross border co-operation
• Bottom-up planning
• ESPON and the INSPIRE Directive

A more detailed outline of the programme can be found here.

Registration

The registration is already open and can be done HERE until Wednesday 1 June 2016 at 15h00. Please note that in order to access the venue, the Dutch EU presidency will send you a personal email with additional steps needed to access the building.

Site visits / excursions

After the seminar, in the afternoon of Friday 17 June 2016 there is an opportunity to see and learn more about interesting projects in the hosting city Amsterdam or on spatial planning in the Netherlands. The activities will be organized together with the municipality of Amsterdam and will last 2 to 3 hours. You can read more about the topics and indicate your interest at: http://goo.gl/forms/H5GpKagAqM.

Those activities that score best will be further developed and organized.

Accommodation

Hotel accommodation in June can be challenging. Therefore we strongly recommend that you make a hotel reservation as soon as possible. Hotel rooms have been pre-booked by the Dutch EU presidency.

IMPORTANT: At 12 March 2016 half of the pre-booked rooms will be given back to the hotels and from 15 April 2016 the other half. After 15th of April you need to book a hotel by your own (booking.com or another website) and good rates cannot be guaranteed at that time.

More information on how to book your hotel via the booking system of the Dutch presidency can be found here.

Join us in Amsterdam and share your opinion with us!