In the ESPON Briefing 2 a variety of current European trends are analysed in order to come to a better understanding a number of factors which need to be taken into account in relation to the Lisbon Strategy. The territorial diversity of factors like the global economy, regional imbalances, service sector specialisation, transportation, governance, demography and cultural innovation are presented so as to support a diversified assessment of the current situation.

Until the Seminar in Nijmegen, every ESPON seminar was followed by a "guidance paper" elaborated by the coordinating projects: ESPON 3.1 and ESPON 3.2.

The ESPON Synthesis Report I is a tool for the ongoing debate of issues related to the structure, cohesion and development of the European territory. The purpose of the report is to communicate the progress made within ESPON after the first year of activities.

The purpose of this second ESPON Scientific Report is to document the progress made on building a scientific platform for applied European territorial research.