A Special Economic Zone (SEZ), or its subcatagory Free Economic Zone (FEZ), is a designated areas within a country where companies have preferential terms within the framework of national and EU st
Maritime spatial planning (MSP) is a process that encompasses the analysis and organisation of human activities in marine areas to achieve ecological, economic and social objectives.
During the European Year of Cultural Heritage 2018, over 23 000 events were organised, reaching more than 12.8 million participants (1).
As part of the ESPON transnational outreach efforts, ESPON has been working together with the Austrian Institute for Regional Studies ÖIR on the assessment of counterfactual methods against their a
Europe’s seas have great potentials for contributing to achieving the objectives of the Europe 2020 Strategy, as regards economic growth and renewable energy. In recent years, the role and importance of maritime potentials has received increasing policy attention, as the idea of Blue Growth has developed.
The Territorial Agenda 2020 addresses maritime activities as essential for territorial cohesion in Europe and establishes that Maritime Spatial Planning (MSP) should be integrated into the existing planning systems. On the same line, the EU Integrated Maritime Policy calls for MSP in order to enable harmonious and sustainable development of a land-sea continuum.
EU Cohesion Policy post-2013 focuses on eleven investment themes where cities and regions need to improve their performance in order to contribute to smart, sustainable and inclusive growth. In seeking better integration to maximise the benefits from investment of public money, all key themes of the future European Structural and Investment Funds (ESIF) need to take account of Europe’s territorial diversity.
Europe is currently affected by two major global challenges. One is the economic and financial crisis. The other is the gradual change of climatic conditions. Like the impacts of the economic and financial crisis, the impacts of climate change caused by natural processes but also human activities, affect and will affect the European territory. However not all regions and cities are and will be affected in the same way. In some places these challenges have little impacts. In other places, they will in the worst case reinforce each other and provide a serious challenge for future growth and employment.
A practical guidance for policymakers and practitioners based on contributions from ESPON projects and the European Commission.
ESPON has published an Atlas to analyse the territorial dimension of the Europe 2020 Strategy and to present the regional and, when possible, urban dimension of Smart, Sustainable and Inclusive Growth as defined in the Strategy.
Territorial Cooperation Programmes play an important role for the development of Europe. Programme investments enable the mobilization of under-used territorial potentials, contributing to the competitiveness of Europe and to the necessary economic growth and job creation.
The Territorial Agenda 2020 highlights that Europe faces challenges with regard to aging and depopulation in several regions including rural and peripheral ones. On growth and social cohesion the Europe 2020 objective of inclusive growth is asking at the same time for the implementation of policies to promote gender equality and to increase labour force participation. Hence, gender imbalances are not only an issue for gender politics. They are both an effect of territorial developments and structures, and a condition for future growth of regions having an impact on social and territorial cohesion.