ESPON as a tool of national and regional policy

Full text

EUROPA XXI
Vol. 25, 2014, pp. 23-35
http://dx.doi.org/10.7163/Eu21.2014.25.2
Institute of Geography and Spatial Organization
Polish Academy of Sciences
www.igipz.pan.pl
ESPON as a tool of national and regional policy1
Jerzy Bański, Mariola Ferenc
Institute of Geography and Spatial Organization
Polish Academy of Sciences
Twarda 51/55, 00-818 Warsaw, Poland
jbanski@twarda.pan.pl, mferenc@twarda.pan.pl
Abstract: This paper presents selected examples of thematic scope and possibilities of practical application
of the projects implemented under the ESPON programme. The projects provide knowledge concerning the
development state of ter ritorial structures within the European Union as well as tools and indicators for their
monitoring. These projects can be categorized into several groups, among which the leading role is played by
the Applied Research and Targeted Analysis. The second part of the paper focuses on practical application of
ESPON knowledge in national and regional context, e.g. in Poland and in Serbia.
Keywords: ESPON projects, thematic scope, project applicability.
Introduction to ESPON
The aim of ESPON Programme is to support policy development in the pursuit of territorial cohesion.
For years, ESPON knowledge was used mainly by policy makers on European and national level. The
history of ESPON started at the beginning of the 21st century, when ESPON was established with
the idea to support work on development of European Spatial Development Perspective (Faludi A.,
Waterhout B., 2002:166-172). For more than a decade ESPON, based on relatively small-scale funds,
involved research in Europe (not only in the EU Member States) with participation of researchers
and practitioners from several hundred institutions. Within the ESPON 2006 programme, 35 major
studies were completed involving more than 600 researchers and 130 institutions focusing on various
ways to analyse spatial dynamics across Europe. In the last period of 2007-2013, greater emphasis was
placed on disseminating results obtained so far with attempts to make them accessible to practitioners
at regional and local level.
1 This paper has been developed under the Scientific Platform project Detecting Terr itorial Potential and Challenges led by
Nordregio, Sweden. It has been financed by the ESPON 2013 Programme and its financial suppor t is gratefully acknowledged.
Texts, maps and conclusions stemming from research projects under the ESPON programme presented in this paper do not
necessarily reflect the opin ions of the ESPON Monitoring Committee. © ESPON, 2014.
EUROPEAN UNION
Part-financed by the European Regional Development Fund
INVESTING IN YOUR FUTURE
ESP N
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ESPON Programme presents the results of research not only in the form of reports from individual
projects, but also through the Synthesis Reports, collections of scientific articles in the series of
Scientific Reports, Territorial Observations studies, short Evidence Brief, and the Map of the
Month. All those documents are directed to policy makers in whole Europe. An interesting feature
of ESPON is the pursuit to cover what is called ‘the ESPON space’ in any territorial analysis. The
ESPON space includes the entire European Union (EU-15, or more recently, EU-27 or even EU-28)
plus Switzerland, Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein. In some studies, even candidate countries or
regions neighbouring upon the European Union have been analyzed.
The authors of this paper attempted to show in what manner ESPON knowledge – methods,
indicators and results – could be beneficial in everyday work of practitioners. The article also
undertakes to explain how ESPON made the territorial analysis available to researchers and policy
makers.
Thematic scope and applicability
The thematic scope of ESPON Programme results directly from its overarching practical purpose,
which is substantive support of actions in the field of EU’s Cohesion Policy (ESPON 2013 Programme,
2007). Projects undertaken within this programme provide practitioners and policy-makers of various
administrative levels with scientific knowledge concerning the development state of the European
Union territorial structures, tendencies and perspectives of their transformation, as well as tools and
indicators to monitor these structures.
Overview of issues examined by ESPON is closely associated with the types of projects that
make up five basic priority groups in the 2007-2013 programming period (ESPON Projects - Final
overview 2012): 1) Applied Research, 2) Targeted Analysis, 3) Scientific Platform, 4) Capitalisation,
Ownership and Participation, 5) Technical Assistance, Analytical Support and Communication. In
the context of the subject matter of the programme, the first three groups, within which specific
research is conducted, are particularly relevant.
Applied Research is intended to provide competent knowledge and consistent data on the
structure of Europe’s spatial diversity. This group primarily uses current scientific achievements
(Science in support of European Territorial Development and Cohesion, 2013). The subject area
defined for this priority group focuses on key contemporary issues (e.g. demography, globalization,
climate change, economic crisis, etc.), or connects these problems integrally, referring to selected
territories (urban area, rural area, region) and economic sectors (transport, power engineering). The
result of this research usually comprises a synthesis of spatial structures in the form of typologies
or classifications enabling the diagnosis of state and assessment of trends and perspectives in the
field of examined issues (e.g. Sohn, Stambolic 2013, Bański, Garcia-Blanco 2013). It also allows for
the analysis of the impact of policies on the transformation of regional structures in Europe. In the
2007-2013 financial perspective 25 thematic projects have been conducted in the field of Applied
Research priority group:
1. Attractiveness of European Regions and Cities for Residents and Visitors
2. Future Orientation for Cities
3. Climate Change and Territorial Effects on Regions and Local Economies in Europe
4. Demographic and Migratory Flows Affecting European Regions and Cities
5. Economic Crisis: Resilience of Regions
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ESPON as a tool of national and regional policy 25
6. Regions at Risk of Energy Poverty
7. Assessment of Regional and Territorial Sensitivity
8. Spatial indicators for a Europe 2020 Strategy Territorial Analysis
9. Territorial Impact of Globalization for Europe and its Regions
10. Territorial Approaches for New Governance
11. Regional Potential for a Greener Economy
12. Secondary growth poles in territorial development
13. Knowledge, Innovation, Territory
14. European Patterns of Land Use
15. European Neighbour Regions
16. Territorial Dimension of Poverty and Social Exclusion in Europe
17. European Development Opportunities in Rural Areas
18. Territorial Scenarios and Visions for Europe
19. European Seas and Territorial Development, Opportunities and Risks
20. Indicators and Perspectives for Services of General Interest in Territorial Cohesion and
Development
21. Geographic Specificities and Development Potentials in Europe
22. European Territorial Cooperation as a Factor of Growth, Jobs and Quality of Life
23. Territorial Impact Package for Transport and Agricultural Policies
24. Small and Medium-Sized Towns
25. Transport Accessibility at regional/local scale and patterns in Europe
Targeted Analysis mainly provides practical knowledge for representatives of various administra-
tive levels and practitioners involved in territorial development or shaping development policy.
Projects under Priority 2 were inspired by practitioners, who had a major role in defining the thematic
scope; these projects had also to have a European relevance. Target Analysis projects were kind of
innovation in ESPON 2013. Compared to previous programming period, ESPON 2013 was created to
increase the utility of results from the projects to policy makers. In general, the projects are focused on
different types of areas (urban agglomerations, rural areas, border regions, metropolitan regions, etc.).
Such approach allows for collecting detailed factual material, enabling the analysis and evaluation of
the socio-economic conditions in selected regions, which, in turn, allows for supporting practitioners
in spatial planning and specific strategic actions they undertake. In the field of Targeted Analysis 23
thematic projects have been conducted:
1. The Case for Agglomeration Economies in Europe
2. Success for Convergence Regions’ Economies
3. Using applied research results from ESPON as a yardstick for cross-border spatial develop-
ment planning
4. Key Indicators for Territorial Cohesion and Spatial Planning
5. Identifying and Exchanging Best Practices in Developing Regional Integrated Strategies in
Europe
6. The Development of the Islands – European Islands and Cohesion Policy
7. Best Development Conditions in European Metropolises: Paris, Berlin and Warsaw
8. Cross-Border Polycentric Metropolitan Regions
9. Metropolisation and Polycentric Development in Central Europe: Evidence Based Strategic
Options
10. Potential of Rural Regions
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26 Jerzy Bańsk i,Mariola Ferenc
11. Spatial Scenarios: New Tools for Local-Regional Territories
12. Territorial Diversity in Europe
13. Smart Institutions for Territorial Development
14. ESPON and Territorial Impact Assessment
15. Territorial Performance Monitoring
16. Airports as Drivers of Economic Success in Peripheral Regions
17. North Sea - Spreading Transnational Results
18. Transnational Support Method for European Cooperation
19. Growth Poles in South-East Europe
20. Landscape Policy for the 3 Countries Park
21. Liveable Landscapes: a Key Value for Sustainable Territorial Development
22. Advanced Monitoring and Coordination of EU R&D Policies at Regional Level
23. Selective Migration and Unbalanced Sex Ratio in Rural Regions
Scientific Platform provides analytical tools, methodological solutions, and statistical data, as
well as a variety of territorial indicators intended to support other projects or practitioners seeking
processed spatial information. Among the most important measures are the following: ESPON
database, atlases and maps of territorial indicators spatial diversity, as well as indicators and territorial
instruments (e.g. Territorial Dimensions of the Europe 2020 Strategy, 2013). Altogether 13 thematic
actions have been carried out within the Scientific Actions:
1. ESPON Atlas on European Territorial Structures and Dynamics
2. Multi-Dimensional Database Design and Development
3. ESPON Database 2013
4. Hyper Atlas
5. Map Updates
6. ESPON Online Mapping Tool
7. Territorial Evidence Packs for Structural Funds Programmes
8. Indicators of Territorial Cohesion
9. Territorial Monitoring for the Baltic Sea Region
10. EU Territorial Monitoring System
11. Detecting Territorial Potentials and Challenges
12. Typologies: Typology Compilation
13. ESPON CityBench for benchmarking European Urban Zones
The other two priorities, namely Capitalisation, Ownership and Participation, as well as Technical
Assistance, Analytical Support and Communication, refer to tasks of a different nature, encompassing
project management system, procedures of funding, networking and dissemination of research results.
Priority 4 projects have to support policy development, preparing strategies and plans by involved
the policy makers and stakeholders in process of creating documents. Participation of practitioners
in scientific research process is based on discussion of results and their practical implications and
use (www.espon.eu).
The Priority 5 group, Technical Assistance, Analytical Support and Communication fulfils yet
other tasks - support for project communication, execution of tasks, managing the preparation and
execution of projects. Recent efforts of ESPON program managers are focused primarily on the
dissemination of ESPON results and create a more friendly reports and tools for practitioners. Policy
makers at national, regional and local are becoming ESPON reports recipients. Difficult language,
lack of translation into national languages and the amount of material collected over the years formed
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ESPON as a tool of national and regional policy 27
so far a barrier for practitioners, who need a quick way to access information and use it. Therefore,
it is often so that from the ESPON materials benefit just the individuals and institutions that are or
have been involved in ESPON activities.
Overview of the ESPON Programme priorities and projects accomplished within their scope allows
for identification of several key thematic groups, which comprise specific areas of interest. Thematic
classification partly results from the three ESPON priorities discussed before, which generally refer to:
EU regional typology (Applied Research), diagnosis of specific regions or groups of regions (Targeted
Analysis), as well as tools and spatial analysis methods (Scientific Platform). However, particularly in
the case of the first two priorities of ESPON a thematic scope classification based on different assump-
tions could be proposed. The projects focus on the three main subject groups: 1) specific regions or areas,
2) contemporary issues of regional development, 3) management of regional development (Fig. 1). In
the first group, projects primarily pertain to cities and metropolitan regions, rural areas, border regions
and islands. In the second group projects encompass the following issues: globalization, demographic
problems, development of new energy sources, transport concerns, climate change and economic crisis.
In contrast, projects within the “management of regional development” group focus towards the issues
of strategies, development scenarios, territorial cooperation and management.
Figure 1. Scheme of ESPON 2013 thematic scope.
Source: own elaboration.
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The range of potential ESPON Programme applicability, as shown in Figure 1, is very broad and
multi-layered – starting with providing detailed knowledge about regions, through specific tools
down to indicators for policy implementation. The recipients of Programme results are scientists,
planners, politicians and representatives of local and government administration at various levels. The
practical role of ESPON is particularly significant with regard to decision-making processes. This
can be evidenced by examining the example of formulating new strategies and documents. The key
development policy dilemma is the choice between, on the one hand, sustainability and social justice,
and, on the other hand, efficiency with competitiveness. It is therefore necessary to decide on one of
several alternative scenarios, fostering - among others - diversity and territorial cohesion.
The findings of ESPON projects point out that regional strategies should dedicate more attention
to local specificities and local potential. The subject of regional diagnosis should be primarily to
identify regional characteristics, which could be applied as key factors in achieving economic
success. Specialization of local or regional economies implementing the specificity of endogenous
potentials (niche activities) should become one of the main priorities for future development
strategies. Development policies, including territorial cohesion should be formulated on the basis of
adequate recognition of social, economic and environmental specificity of a region and endogenous
potential competitive to other areas. Specificity and distinctness from other regions should become
the integral elements of regional and local identity.
Practical application of ESPON
By assumption, the ESPON program is implemented in order to support policy makers through
provision of relevant knowledge and tools by the international teams of scientists and experts.
Research conducted in order to support the cohesion policy is based on the observation of European
space, events and trends. Studies executed in Europe and the resulting reports, publications and tools
are intended to be a part of support for the formulation of policies in the context of EU cohesion
policy.
Research methods described in the projects, good practices in the regions, conclusions and recom-
mendations are the best source of information for practitioners at European, national, regional and
local levels. Proper adjustment to the current needs of the regions can bring measurable results.
Particular European countries are beginning to benefit from the ESPON projects effects;
practitioners at various administration levels put into practice conclusions and methods drawn from
ESPON documents in their daily work.
In order to disseminate ESPON knowledge, the ESPON Contact Points were established (the
total of 30, including Liechtenstein, which has chosen to be covered by Swiss ECP) in all Member
States. Their task is not only to disseminate knowledge, but also to customize the results of projects
to national and local context. ESPON Contact Points are a kind of link between researchers and
policy makers in countries. ECP activities are also directed to:
national and foreign entities operating within the framework of ESPON,
national and foreign research institutions and academia,
representatives of the central government and of the various levels of local government,
opinion leaders and representatives of advisory bodies (http://en.espon.pl/).
Some ECPs translate selected results of chosen ESPON projects into national languages, as well
as prepare meetings with researchers and practitioners at the national and local levels.
•
•
•
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ESPON as a tool of national and regional policy 29
One of the projects implemented by the contact points (in this case France, Germany, Greece,
Luxembourg, Poland and UK) was the USEESPON project, which aimed to support the process of
exploitation of the results arising from research conducted in the framework of the ESPON 2013
Programme. The goal is achieved by involving key stakeholders in the use of research findings in
their daily work (in the creation of public policies and the management of territorial development).
The main challenge is to provide essential applications - specific knowledge that comes from ESPON
research and public policy makers to managing development (http://www.espon-usespon.eu/). On the
project website, the policymakers from countries involved in the project can find supporting materials
in their language about “Urban Benchmarking as a tool for complex assessment of development
potential”2. There, in a step-by-step explanation policymakers can find the most relevant information
on how to implement a method in their region. The USEESPON project provides also explanation
and experience from the Nexus model - a tool developed by European researchers, which focuses
directly on the relationship between the challenges and opportunities of the development area.
This tool promotes changes in the strategic regional policy objectives of convergence to realize the
potential of growth and promote sustainable development. Another method applied in the project
was Delphi method, which helped in assessment of relative importance of hazards for the European
regional development. Using examples, the researchers showed how to use ESPON concepts and
techniques in policy-making and practice. It is worth presenting the situations, where the methods
and results of ESPON have been implemented and used in the construction of documents of national
and regional importance. A sample of examples shows that the ESPON methods are not only used in
the ‘old’ EU countries, but also in the new Member States and non-Member States. ESPON methods
are often applied in the institutional environments that are actively involved in ESPON projects (e.g.
the Ministry of Regional Development in Poland), have the knowledge and experience of project and
know its capacities. For this reason the role of Contact Points in distribution of ESPON knowledge
appears to be crucial. Furthermore is worth mentioning that the ESPON Programme knowledge was
in quite a significant degree incorporated into 5th report on economic, social and territorial cohesion.
In Poland, during the process of updating the National Spatial Development Concept (NSDC), the
issues not taken into account in the previous version of the document, have been analyzed. Areas
of research related to infrastructure, accessibility of Polish space, metropolitan areas, and urban
functional areas have been examined, in particular, on the basis of knowledge generated within
ESPON projects. Certain ESPON studies (e.g. ESPON Project 1.1.1. Potentials for polycentric
development in Europe, ESPON project 1.4.3. Study on Urban Functions) were applied to create the
new spatial policy of the country.
Research on the impact of urban areas and metropolitan areas has been carried out in the world
since the 1930s (McKenzie 1993, Huff 1973); in Poland, the study of development of urban functional
regions has been taken up already in the 1970s by Korcelli (1976). The close relationship of the city
with its suburbs in the era of intensive industrialization has been particularly apparent in terms of
commuting to work (more on the impact of cities in the context of the metropolitan region in Korcelli
- Olejniczak 2012). The delimitation of functional areas in Poland is documented very abundantly,
in case of most of the cities the impact areas were designated for cognitive or practical reasons,
however, the delimitation criteria are incomparable, therefore, the necessity arose of creating a unified
delimitation (Śleszyński 2013). Results of the ESPON project 1.4.3. Study on Urban Functions were
the basis for the delimitation of Functional Urban Areas (FUAs) for the purpose of the National
2 http://www.espon-usespon.eu/supporting-materials
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Spatial Development Concept. ESPON studies take into account 151 largest Polish cities, delimiting
their cores and suburban areas (at municipality level). However, due to lack of data, some criteria,
such as, for example, commuting to work, have not been taken into account (Figure 2). Lack of data
is an important issue in the case of ESPON projects. Adaptation of methodologies and indicators to
the actual availability of data often leads to a distortion regarding the results of the projects.
It is also very frequent that the data ought to be carefully prepared, as they are collected by
different institutions, not always according to the same methodology. The missing substantive data,
as well as temporal discontinuities, make the results from respective ESPON studies less useful for
practitioners. Another problem is the scale of the phenomena studied, the data often relate to entire
countries or regions and is not adequate in the case of analysis at the local level.
Figure 2. The FUAs according to the functional criteria (Global score).
Source: ESPON, 2007, ESPON 2006 project - 1.4.3 – Study on urban functions. Final Repor t.
Work on the NSDC began in early 2012. Maps created for the purposes of document shows a
comparison of the delimitation created for the ESPON study with a range of functional urban areas
designated in the planning studies in the last decade, and the Larger Urban Zones, developed by the
Central Statistical Office. Poland’s Ministry of Regional Development has initiated the work on a
common concept of Functional Urban Areas based on existing knowledge gained from the ESPON
project and national publications.
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ESPON as a tool of national and regional policy 31
The new concept of functional urban areas in Poland encompasses seven indicators, concerning
functional relations, including socio-economic and morphological characteristics: (1) leaving for
gainful employment to the FUA core (indicator used for the first time in the delimitation for data after
1990); (2) migration (registration of residence) from the FUA core (3) the share of the employed in
non-agricultural professions, (4) the intensity of economic entities in general (in relation to population
number), (5) the share of high-order service economic entities in the overall number of entities (6) the
population density (without forests and waters), (7) housing completions in relation to population. The
result is a delimitation covering 299 municipalities, including 33 core and 266 located in the outer
zones (Śleszyński 2013). Delimitation criteria presented in the materials of the Ministry of Regional
Development (Kryteria delimitacji miejskich obszarów funkcjonalnych ośrodków wojewódzkich
2013) are a tool ensuring the comparability of methodology throughout the country. At the beginning
of 2014 several district towns (capital cities of NUTS 4 territorial units) began to develop delimitation
of their urban functional areas.
Figure 3. Functional Urban Areas (FUAs).
Source: National Spatial Development Concept 2030.
The ESPON method of determining the functional urban areas was also implemented for the
purpose of developing the Spatial Plan of The Republic of Serbia. 2010-2014-2020, as well as the
National Regional Development Strategy of the Republic of Bulgaria for the period 2005-2015. In the
first case, The Republic Agency for Spatial Planning (RASP) in Serbia has applied ESPON methodol-
ogy and conducted own studies resulting in a map presenting functional urban areas (Figure 4).
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Figure 4. Functional Urban Areas in Serbia.
Source: Spatial Plan of The Republic of Serbia. 2010-2014-2020. Abridged version, 2010, Republic Agency
of Spatial Planning, Belgrade.
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ESPON as a tool of national and regional policy 33
Serbia is one of the youngest countries in Europe, and so, the administration was able to adapt
their plans to the modern European reality. Despite the fact that Serbia still remains an EU candidate
country, the strategic documents were prepared in accordance with laws applying in the European
Union and with current trends in spatial planning (Jansen et al. 2012:2). Almost from the beginning
of the ESPON network, Serbia has been attempting to become its member and establish close contacts
with ESPON projects partners and Member States.
The Republic Agency for Spatial Planning is responsible for the development of policy and
spatial planning on national and regional levels, as well between different sectors. To avoid gaps in
strategic documents concerning territorial monitoring system of spatial planning (at national and
local level), documents are compatible with methodology, indicators and ESPON Programme results,
as well as with spatial data within the Infrastructure for Spatial Information in Europe (INSPIRE)
Directive. The whole task has been carried out within the framework of the Serbian-Netherlands
Government-to-Government project (G2G) ‘Building capacity for INSPIRE Directive and ESPON
2013 Programme in the Republic of Serbia’ (Jansen et al. 2012:4). RASP successfully implements the
methodology and indicators from ESPON Project 4.1.3 (called Monitoring Territorial Development;
2007).
It is worth noting that European countries draw from ESPON knowledge in small portions,
but over the years and with increasingly active ESPON policy to distribute knowledge, there are
noticeable changes in documents and policy across Europe.
Conclusions
The ESPON program is from the very beginning addressed to decision makers, but the scale of knowl-
edge concerning the program results is faint. As Nathalie Noupadja from the Council of European
Municipalities and Regions during the ESPON Policy Seminar “An interactive ESPON handbook
for regions” mentioned, ESPON program at the local level is only known within the so-called “Blue
Banana” countries - and in most cases local decision makers are only familiar with ESPON maps
(e.g. concerning GDP). Feedback from local and regional representatives involved in the workshops
conducted within ESPON DeTeC project (see Dymén at al. 2014), confirmed the earlier findings of
the ESPON 2013 Programme External Evaluation (2011), as well as other ESPON evaluations, stating
that a significant barrier in the dissemination of ESPON knowledge is constituted by language.
Many ESPON Contact Points allocate their financial means for translation and issuing main reports
and ESPON publications in national languages, but their share remains much too low for efficient
dissemination of ESPON knowledge. Another argument, raised by the participants of the workshop,
is too global a coverage of the phenomena presented on the maps, which are not analyzed at the local
level. Decision-makers prefer to work with domestic sources or OECD database. One of the remarks
at the ESPON policy seminar was that long-established and small regions are more critical towards
ESPON, while “new” and large regions (e.g. South East Scotland or DKMT Euroregion) are more
positive. This to a large extent depends on the governance approach and institutional underpinning
of the region.
Research is often divided into two categories: academic research and applied research. For years,
scientists have been dealing with a difficult task of presenting academic research in a comprehensible
and utile way to practitioners. Good quality applied research presents high level of applicability and
at the same time retains adequately high scientific level.
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34 JerzyBański,Mariola Ferenc
The ESPON Programme meets both these criteria. Researchers from the entire Europe know
that regions are not isolated entities but are parts of a larger territorial context (Regional use of
ESPON knowledge, 2010). Researchers involved in the ESPON Programme develop innovation-based
knowledge and tools. This allows practitioners across Europe to detect potentials and preconditions
for territorial development, deriving from their larger context, but also to provide guidance in
conducting actions in the field of regional territorial development strategies and policies (Regional
use of ESPON knowledge, 2010).
The ESPON methods and knowledge have so far been known only to a narrow circle of people
working at the European level, people involved in ESPON projects and the related national contact
points. With projects such as DeTeC or USEESPON and activities of persons involved in the work
on the projects, as well as preparation of documents of national and regional importance, a growing
number of people at lower levels of government have a chance to hear about ESPON and to apply
the respective methods and knowledge in their work.
There is much work in front of the ESPON Programme, the results of the workshop organized
in the framework of the ESPON project DeTeC show that regional and local data from ESPON
(especially maps) are not useful. Likewise, application-oriented methodologies and a user-friendly
language of transmitting the results (this language not being user-friendly now) should be developed.
Further, the amount and availability of information should be improved.
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