Abbreviations

A  
ASEAN Association of SouthEast Asian Nations (Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam)
ASEAN+3 Association of SouthEast Asian Nations plus China, Japan and South Korea
C  
CAP Common Agriculture Policy
CEEC Central and Eastern European Countries
CEPII Centre d’Etudes Prospectives et d’Information Internationales
CIS Commonwealth of Independent States
COMECON Council for Mutual Economic Assistance
CU Co-ordination Unit
D  
DAC Development Aid Committee
E  
EFTA European Free Trade Association
EIB European Investment Bank
ENP European Neighbourhood Policy
EPO European Patent Office
ESDP European Spatial Development Perspective
ESPON European Observation Network for Territorial Development and Cohesion
EU European Union
EU25 European Union with 25 members
EU27 European Union with 27 Members
EU27 + 2 European Union with 27 Members plus Switzerland and Norway
EU27 + 8 European Union with 27 Members plus Albania, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Croatia, FYR of Macedonia, Serbia & Montenegro, Norway, Switzerland, Turkey
F  
FDI Foreign Direct Investments
FUA Functional Urban Area
G  
GDP Gross Domestic Product
GDP (ppp) Gross Domestic Product purchasing power parity.
GIS Geographic Information System
H  
HDI Human Development Indicators
HDR Human Development Report
I  
ICAO International Civil Aviation Organization
ICT Information and Communications Technology
IMF International Monetary Fund
INTERREG Community initiative which aims to stimulate interregional cooperation
IS Information Society
ISPA Instrument for Structural Policy for Pre-Accession
K  
KTEN Know Trans-European Networks model
L  
LAU Local Administrative Units
M  
MASST Macroeconomic, Sectoral, Social and Territorial model
MAUP Modifiable Areas Unit Problem
MC Monitoring Committee
MEGA Metropolitan European Growth Areas
MERCOSUR Southern Common Market (Mercado Común del Sur) (Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay, Venezuela)
MERCOSUR+5 Southern Common Market plus Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru
N  
NAFTA North American Free Trade Agreement (Canada, United States, Mexico)
NGO Non Governmental Organisation
NIS Newly Independent States
NMS New Member States
NUTS Nomenclature d’Unités Territoriales Statistiques (nomenclature of territorial units for statistics)
O  
OECD Organisation of Economic Co-operation and Development
P  
PC-TAS Personal Computer Trade Analysis System
PHARE Programme of Community aid to the countries of Central and Eastern Europe (Poland & Hungary Action for Restructuring the Economy)
PPS Purchasing Power Standards
R  
R&D Research and Development
RTA Regional trade agreement
S  
SAPARD Pre-accession agricultural instrument (Special Accession Program for Agriculture And Rural Development)
T  
TEN Trans-European transport Network
U  
UN United Nations
UNCTAD United Nations Conference on Trade and Development
UNESCO United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization 
UNPP United Nations Population Prospects
UNWTO United Nations World Tourism Organization
W  
WDI World Development Indicators
WTO World Trade Organisation
WUTS World Unified Territorial System