Centuries of human activity has shaped current European landscapes. Not only by the geographical context and availability of resources, but also demographic evolution, economic development, urbanisation and infrastructure roll-out have played an important role in driving land use changes and shaping Europe’s current landscapes.

Drawing on the results of a wide range of ESPON applied research projects, this report highlights the territorial development themes, challenges and opportunities that need to be addressed jointly by the Partner States and the EU Member States while, in addition, identifying the complementarities between each of these four states and the EU.

Today, development policies for regions, cities and larger territories require the understanding of an area’s development potentials and challenges in a wider territorial context. This is why ESPON provides territorial evidence with relevant information on trends, perspectives and policy impacts seen from a European perspective. This can be used during various stages in the cycle of European Structural and Investment Funds Programmes (ESIF) – ranging from the development of the programme, via the selection of actions to monitoring and evaluation.

Europe’s second tier cities are important growth poles and have in many cases great development potentials. They play a vital role within the national urban system and often even perform better than their capital cities. In fact, secondary cities contribute substantially to the economic development in Europe and are decisive for achieving the Europe 2020 objectives on smart, sustainable and inclusive growth.

One of the objectives of the ESPON Programme is to support the European wide research community in the field of European territorial science and to involve a wide European network of scientists and practitioners in the field of territorial research and its related fields. A large involvement is indispensable to get high qualified research capacity in ESPON projects and at the same time to increase interest and competences in research on European territorial structures, trends, perspectives and impacts of EU sector policy.

Services of general interest cover important arrangements, tasks and functions related to citizen`s welfare and participation. They also refer to the supply of basic infrastructure and services for businesses. On that respect, they are not only preconditions of growth and job creation, but also a fundamental pillar for the achievement of smart, sustainable and inclusive growth. Moreover, the access to services of general interest represents an important dimension of social and territorial cohesion.

In a globalised world, gateway cities are important focal points of social and economic development and receive considerable policy attention. Gateway cities are transport hubs, nodes in global financial systems, the location of research institutes in cutting-edge international innovation networks and places attracting international tourism.

Free movement of people is one of the cornerstones of European integration. Increasing mobility of people brings with it both territorial development opportunities and challenges. As a consequence of the global economic crisis migration flows have changed, with territorial impacts on European countries, its regions and cities.

Article 174 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union states that ”the Union shall aim at reducing disparities between the levels of development of the various regions and the backwardness of the least favoured regions” and that ”among the regions concerned, particular attention shall be paid to […] regions which suffer from severe and permanent natural or demographic handicaps such as the northernmost regions with very low population density and island, cross-border and mountain regions.”

The Europe 2020 Strategy aims at responding to the challenges facing Europe, such as the global economic crisis, climate change and energy security by focusing on three growth priorities for ensuring European competitiveness: smart, sustainable and inclusive growth.