[SENPO] - Territorial instruments of national policies as a tool for designing territorially sensitive policies

While the Member states embrace the Cohesion Policy’s territorial instruments, the 9th Cohesion Report dedicated a whole chapter in highlighting the fact that nationally funded policies are also important, noting that “National policies tackling regional disparities have a key role in strengthening territorial cohesion in the EU”. The European Commission notes in the 9th Cohesion report that thus far there has been no systematic evidence collected on the role of national policies, with only some first attempts (see Study on National Policies and Cohesion) emerging. Hence, this ESPON study will contribute to the ongoing debate on illustrating the role of nationally designed territorial instruments (which may or may not use EU and other external funding).

Overall, spatial planning can also be considered as an important element in the debate on “territorial instruments” since in many cases spatial planning provides practical framework for all development-related policies, for instance, from the perspective of land use and zoning. Nowadays, a spatial planning instrument is not considered just a map or spatial representation, but may also encompass, initiatives, regulations, policy interventions or fiscal measures (see the overview). The ESPON Programme over the years has paid a particular attention to disentangling the concept of spatial planning. The ESPON 2020 online Atlas has summarized in many ways the essence of the debate, by illustrating the extent to which territorial/sectoral policies have embraced spatial planning. For instance, it can be noted that health and (higher) education policy, ICT and digitalization policy and retail policy are reported to be least integrated with spatial planning. The ESPON EGTC also produced a policy brief “Cross-fertilisation of cohesion policy and spatial planning”, pointing out a clear roadmap on how to achieve a better coordination between spatial planning and Cohesion Policy at the Member state level.

Objectives

The territorial study aims to examine and benchmark territorial instruments which are used by national public policies in Europe to intervene in areas undergoing socio-economic transition, primarily by drawing on the Polish experience with OSI (areas of strategic interventions) and by examining the implementation of the Dutch Novex programme.

The study will take stock of the two aforementioned national cases of territorial instruments (in Poland and the Netherlands), and add further cases from France, Italy and Germany, to examine how various territorial instruments are being set up, how they function and how they are being used to design territorially sensitive policies, respecting challenges, sensitivities and issues different types of territories are facing. Thus, on the one hand territorial instruments will be approached from a perspective of them being used to proactively foster territorial cohesion and decrease territorial disparities, and on the other hand as instruments which seek to prevent harm to territorial cohesion and maintain spatial equality.

Subsequent recommendations will also focus specifically on how to utilize territorial instruments in practice in order to design new or complement any existing national ex ante territorial impact assessment activities.

Expected results

Analysis and overview of territorial instruments across various ESPON countries, based on literature analysis and interviews with public administrations.
Five detailed case study reports on the use of territorial instruments in Poland, the Netherlands, France, Italy and Germany.
Conclusions and concrete policy recommendations on how to use territorial instruments in practice and under which conditions.