Strengthening the resilience of the Adriatic and Ionian Region through cooperation was the slogan of the 5th Forum of the EU Strategy for the Adriatic and Ionian Region (EUSAIR),  organised by the Serbian Presidency of EUSAIR.

Among the topics discussed macro-regional cooperation in EU post-2020  was a priority, along with the digital and green transition, and regional responses to the COVID-19 crisis.

ESPON EGTC was invited to the first plenary session: “Imagining post-COVID EUSAIR –How to cooperate in the new reality? The twin digital and green transition as a regional response to the Covid-19 crisis” of the online Forum. Sandra Di Biaggio, senior project expert, presented insights on territorial development patterns and trends for the thematic priorities of the EUSAIR from the recently published ESPON Tool MRS. ESPON. This territorial monitoring tool addressing  Europe, its macro-regions and regions provide, maps,  data, graphs, analytical features and short reports, combining information from different sources and in particular from the ESPON Database.

adriatic.png

Ms Di Biaggio emphasised the relevance of the tool in supporting the EUSAIR stakeholders’ to identify territorial development opportunities and challenges in this macro-regions and its regions. In addition, the new ESPON project that aims to produce territorial scenarios for the Danube and Adriatic Macro-regions was briefly introduced. This activity will complement the scenarios developed by ESPON for the Baltic Sea Region: ESPON BT2050 and Alpine space: ALPS 2050.

The presentation of ESPON and other presentations of the event are available on the EUSAIR website.