ESPON 2020 Programme (2014-2020)The ESPON 2020 Programme aims at
promoting and fostering a European territorial dimension in development and
cooperation by providing evidence, knowledge transfer and policy learning to
public authorities and other policy actors at all levels. It shall continue the
consolidation of a European Territorial Observatory Network and expand the
provision and policy use of pan-European, comparable, systematic and reliable
territorial evidence.
Main Objectives
The main objective of the ESPON 2020 Cooperation Programme, which was adopted by the European
Commission on 12 February 2015, is to support the
reinforcement of the effectiveness of EU Cohesion Policy and other sectoral
policies and programmes under European Structural Investment (ESI) funds as
well as national and regional territorial development policies, through the
production, dissemination and promotion of territorial evidence covering the
entire territory of the 28 EU Members States, as well as the 4 Partner States
of Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland.
The
programme is co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) with
a contribution of €41.3 million for the period 2014-2020.
Under the new ESPON 2020 Programme, a European
Grouping for Territorial Cooperation (EGTC) will be contracted to implement the
2014-2020 programme. The ESPON EGTC will be the single beneficiary of this
programme and will make use of service contracts to implement the programme
accordingly. Further to this, the first calls for tender are envisaged to be
launched in October 2015.
The Cooperation Programme is built around the following five specific
objectives that will guide the implementation of the ESPON 2020 Programme:
- Specific
Objective 1: Enhanced production of territorial evidence through applied
research and analyses.
- Specific
Objective 2: Upgraded knowledge transfer and use of analytical user
support.
- Specific
Objective 3: Improved territorial observation and tools for territorial
analyses.
- Specific
Objective 4: Wider outreach and uptake of territorial evidence.
- Specific Objective 5: Leaner, and more effective and efficient
implementation provisions and more proficient programme assistance.
Click here for more information on the ESPON 2020 Programme.