How to foster Europe’s competitiveness and integration through cooperation with neighbouring territories?

Under this headline the first day of the Internal ESPON Seminar held in Cyprus on the 5 and 6 December 2012, contained a mixture of plenary sessions and parallel workshops.The round table discussion, which included speeches from representatives from relevant organizations covering the European Neighbouhood (i.e. EUROMED, VASAB and Barents Co-Operation), shared experiences and good practices in cooperating with different regions in the European neighbourhood to improve their territorial development and economic performance.The discussion guided by a facilitator provided relevant inputs on ideas and demands for further cooperation to meet shared challenges and gain the economic advantages of increased territorial scale.The key note speeches and the round table session set the scene for a more detailed discussion organised around the following themes: accessibility, transport, territorial factors for global competitiveness and growth, territorial cooperation at different scales, urban fabric, demographic change, core-periphery challenges.ESPON projects were asked to contribute with territorial evidence and reflections on the territorial opportunities and challenges in Europe and its neighbourhood fostering competitivenees and ideas for further cooperation.

11.45-13.00 ROUND TABLE How to foster Europe’s competitiveness and integration through cooperation with neighbouring territories?
Neighbourhood objectives for territorial development from a policy point of view
Facilitator: Michael Parkinson, External Expert
Territorial development strategies in regions and cities in the European Neighbourhood
‐ Stella Kyvelou,EUROMED representative
‐ Rune Rafaelsen, Barents Co-operation
‐ Peter Melhbye, EU Strategies for the Baltic Sea and Danube Region representative
‐ Irina Karelina, VASAB representative from Russia

Stimulus statements from the Director of the Cyprus Energy Service, Solon Kassinis, from
the European Neighbourhood and feedback statement from Pierre Beckouche, Lead
Partner of the ESPON Project on European Neighbourhood.

The aim of this roundtable dialogue was to discuss new opportunities and ideas for
cooperation by considering the territorial development objectives mentioned in the
TA2020, Europe 2020 but also presented by multilateral cooperation initiatives. Cities,
regions, Member States in an enlarged Europe plus the European Commission shall all
contribute. Policy makers has been invited to give their points of view on “How to foster regions and
cities competitiveness by making better use of territorial diversity in Europe and its
Neighbourhood”. This question has been also further addressed in the thematic parallel
workshops.

Key questions :
‐ How can the diversity of territories in the European Neighborhood be positively
explored in the long term development and integration of Europe?
‐ What main challenges related to disparities and territorial balance can be identified?
‐ What are the main priority areas for cooperation?
‐ What new demand could arise for the EU Cohesion Policy due to further accession
of new EU Member States?
‐ What examples could be mentioned as good practice in boosting the
competitiveness and integration of cities and regions in the 21th century’s new era of
international competition?

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