Europe has witnessed an inflow of a large number of people over the last years. As a consequence of the geopolitical instability in the Middle East and Africa, migration and refugee flows towards Europe have increased with significant territorial impacts on European countries, regions and cities. This situation has resulted in the largest movement of people to European countries since the Second World War.

Scenarios can be a useful tool to support policy-making. They can be used to communicate insights and discuss potential territorial developments, the impact of territorially relevant policies, and the political choices to be made. They can shape the mindsets of policy-makers. Territorial scenarios can enrich policy processes and help them to capture the long-term and become more effective and efficient by reflecting the territorial diversity of future developments.

ESPON provided new territorial evidence on the urban system in Europe. In this context, small and medium sized towns as well as very small towns play an important role for territorial development. As the map shows, three main types of urban areas and towns can be identified in Europe:

This publication provides brief, factual information on a selection of important key figures and main territorial trends affecting European regions, specific types of territories, metropolitan regions, cities and rural regions.

The ESPON Monitoring Report presents territorial evidence on the progress Europe has made towards the orientations of the Territorial Agenda 2020. It also explores how the recent development trends may have contributed to the achievement of Europe 2020 objectives.

The ESPON Evidence Brief is a new, short and informative publication targeting policy makers and practitioners and building on main research results from recent ESPON p

Poverty and social exclusion concern all regions in Europe, irrespective of their economic situation. The Europe 2020 Strategy highlights the importance of delivering inclusive growth, giving strong emphasis to job creation and poverty reduction in Europe. The Strategy aims at fighting poverty and social exclusion with the headline target of “having at least 20 million fewer people in or at risk of poverty and social exclusion in the European Union by 2020”

ESPON Territorial Observations aim at providing policy makers and practitioners with short and concise information on important new evidence to various dynamics of the

ESPON has promoted the scientific component of the Programme through conferences and workshops, cooperation with European organisations in the fields of regional science, geography and spatial planning, as well as with a dedicated series of reports mainly targeting the scientific community.

Over the last years, the movement in favour of an integrated European urban policy has gained momentum. The importance of cities has been highlighted by the European Commission, and a public consultation over a future European Urban Agenda has been organised over the past months.

Territories finding a New Momentum: Evidence for Policy Development, Growth and Investment - ESPON presents a third synthesis of findings building on applied research by transnational research teams from all over Europe.

The economic crisis has witnessed the most severe economic downturn in the history of the European Union and has reversed a long trend of converging GDP and employment rates. Yet not all regions experienced economic decline and rates of recovery have varied greatly.