While European regions and cities slowly emerge from varying degrees of lockdown measures that were imposed to contain the spread of Covid-19, the effects that the sanitary crisis caused are likely to last for some time to come. Due to different development conditions and territorial specificities, these implications vary across European territories, as do the policy responses that have been put in place. Just a bit more than a decade after the financial crisis hit in 2008, the Covid-19 pandemic underscores the need to increase the resilience of European cities, regions and countries and to strengthen their recovery process.

The TAP on ‘Places resilient to crises’ is very comprehensive and cuts across different thematic fields. It aims at creating territorial evidence on the vulnerability of European territories to different types of crises, emergent in environmental, economic, social, sanitary and digital fields of activity. The evidence to be gathered shall also inform about the specific strengths of European territories that enable them to withstand crises as well as their specific development opportunities that can be tapped to better manage the effects of crises. Altogether, the results generated in the framework of this TAP shall help to strengthen territories’ adaptation capacity so that the policies, through the adapted governance mechanisms, can better mitigate different risks and shocks.

Through observations for the entire ESPON Programme area, this TAP intends to provide new insights and possible pathways for all places to build their resilience to the emerging threats.

Among others, this TAP:

• includes European research activities to help detect the already developing and potential natural and manmade hazards that could result in different types of crises bearing its mark on territorial development;
• includes comparative studies to capture the territorial vulnerability to different types of crises as well as particular strengths of European regions and cities (e.g. geographical specificities and similarities) that help withstand crises and foster development opportunities;
• supports countries, regions and cities in their efforts to further develop adaptation, mitigation and recovery strategies;
• promotes the collaborative approach across the levels and territories, the networking and the involvement of civil societies and other stakeholders that could play important roles in elaborating adequate and placebased resilience actions;
• strengthens the capacities and skills of policy makers on all levels of governance and across policy sectors to further integrate resilience in programming and policy making processes;
• contributes to understanding possible territorial consequences of resilience actions taken, including the use of specific policies as a tool to enhance territorial resilience.

Read more about the Thematic Action Plan (TAP) on ‘Places resilient to crises’ in the document that is attached below. 

Do you want to comment, add or propose something new in relation to this TAP? Join the debate! How?

• You can send us an email at [email protected] 

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