"European Territorial Evidence for EU Cohesion Policy and Programming"

Aalborg, Denmark 13 and 14 June 2012

ESPON invites for a two days Open Seminar on “European Territorial Evidence for EU Cohesion Policy and Programming”. The Seminar is organised in cooperation with the Danish Presidency of the European Union and takes place in the city of Aalborg 13 and 14 June 2012.

This event will take into account the policy process negotiating for the future Structural Funds and corresponding programmes as outlined in the Community Strategic Framework. In short, the Structural Funds shall contribute to the EU 2020 Strategy by creating growth and jobs around Europe. Policies and Community funded programmes targeted for regions and for larger territories will support this aim within a number of priority themes. The urban dimension in this development seems to get a stronger role.

The purpose of this ESPON Seminar is two-fold:

• Allow policy makers and practitioners to share concrete experience, discuss the use of territorial evidence and to approach new options for developing Creative Regions of Innovation and Knowledge.
• Address the use of territorial evidence in relation to the thematic objectives of the Community Strategic Framework opting at growth and jobs, and the ESPON tools that can support a territorial dimension in the programming within future EU Cohesion Policy.

Aim

The seminar will address territorial evidence of relevance for European regions and for the preparation of new programmes under EU Cohesion Policy.

Programme

The first day of the seminar will address the theme of “Creative Regions of Innovation and Knowledge”. This day aims at stimulating a thorough discussion of concrete experiences on the basis of territorial trends and supporting evidence from ESPON projects. The day will close with a debate concerning new options for the shaping of creative and attractive regions for growth and jobs. A key target group on this first day are policy makers and practitioners from regions and cities interested in finding new inspiration for the efforts of developing their own region or city.

The second day is structured around the envisaged thematic objectives or future Structural Funds and corresponding programmes. After 10 years of delivering pan-European territorial evidence, ESPON is capable of supporting a stronger territorial dimension in the policy making around future funded programmes. This will be demonstrated in a series of workshops organised around the thematic priorities of future programmes, where the partners from ESPON projects present territorial evidence that could support policy-makers and stakeholders on where to propose action in their specific programming area, and on what. The key target group for the second day are policy makers, practitioners, managing authorities and programme secretariats currently making considerations on the evidence base needed for including a territorial dimension in future Structural Funds programmes.

The Open ESPON Seminar will in addition offer insights on the tools, indicators and data made available by ESPON. There will also be an opportunity for the participants to discuss how to make good use of the territorial evidence in practice. In addition, they will be introduced to the ongoing and challenging ESPON project on Territorial Scenarios and Visions for 2050.

Audience

In the year of the tenth anniversary of ESPON providing European wide comparable evidence for policy making, we extend a warm welcome to all policy makers, practitioners, scientists and experts, who want to know more about the ESPON evidence or who are already involved in defining, producing and using the results of ESPON.

Where

The Open Seminar will take place on 13 and 14 June 2012 in Aalborg in the Nordkraft cultural center.

Registration and further information

The registration closed on 21 May 2012.

Please find below the final program and practical information.

For more information: contact the ESPON Coordination Unit at info@espon.eu.
 

This event is organised within the framework of the ESPON 2013 Capitalisation Strategy
(Actions related to European Seminars and Workshops).