European Commission: Directorate-General for Regional and Urban Policy, Bridging gaps – EU cohesion policy – Creating a better life for Europeans, Publications Office of the European Union, 2024.

The European Union’s Cohesion Policy is vital in reducing economic and social disparities and promoting harmonious development across the continent. The policy, implemented together with the EU countries and regions, gives active, timely support for employment, entrepreneurship, research & development, infrastructure, environment, human capital and much more in line with objectives of smart, sustainable, and inclusive growth. The title of the publication, Bridging Gaps, refers to exactly that: it is through Cohesion Policy that regions can address their needs and capitalise their advantages for everyone’s benefit.

Eurofound, Mascherini, M., Hyland, M., et al., 2023.

The Treaty of Lisbon established territorial cohesion as the third dimension of European cohesion. Despite the high priority given in policy to achieving geographically balanced economic development, gaps in living conditions still exist between rural and urban areas. In some cases, these gaps are growing. This report documents rural–urban differences in social, political, cultural and economic outcomes. These differences may pose a serious threat to social cohesion in Europe. Indeed, this report finds that rural residents more often perceive themselves as disregarded by governments and have lower levels of trust in governments and institutions than urban residents. Moreover, public service provision in rural areas is poorer than in urban areas, and gaps in provision are continually emerging. To ensure a bright future for all areas, innovative solutions to combat economic decline must be found. This report outlines creative solutions that are being deployed across Member States to provide services in remote areas.

European Commission: Joint Research Centre, Hormigos Feliu, C., Batista e Silva, F., Dijkstra, L., Auteri, D. et al., Challenges and opportunities for territorial cohesion in Europe – Contributions to the 9th Cohesion report, Batista e Silva, F.(editor) and Dijkstra, L.(editor), Publications Office of the European Union, 2024.

This report assembles a series of separate scientific contributions to the European Commission’s Ninth Report on Economic, Social and Territorial Cohesion. The report includes seven short research papers providing background and insight under three broad topics with relevance to European regional and urban policy: Urbanisation and regional economic trends; Transport and digital accessibility; and Sectoral analyses (renewable energy and tourism). Each short paper documents a novel research or analysis based on the most recent data available, thus providing up-to-date and timely evidence on issues with a strong territorial dimension.

European Committee of the Regions, Commission for Territorial Cohesion Policy and EU Budget, Toptsidou, M., Böhme, K., et al., 2024.

The world faces major economic, social, technological, political and environmental challenges that shape the everyday life of people and businesses. The European Union has a strong potential to deal with such challenges and ensure a just future for all its places and people. Among others, the EU has two powerful tools for this, the Single Market and Cohesion Policy. Although Cohesion Policy has helped to reduce disparities, there are still inequalities in the EU which risk undermining its future prosperity. In the coming years, economic growth in the EU will be driven by the twin green and digital transitions, which will bring new opportunities. At the same time significant changes are likely to create new regional disparities.

European Commission: Directorate-General for Regional and Urban Policy, Communicating operations of strategic importance in 2021-2027 – A practical toolbox, Publications Office of the European Union, 2024.

The regulatory framework for the 2021-2027 programming period introduces a new feature for programmes across the EU, the so-called ‘operations of strategic importance’. With thousands of Cohesion policy projects funded each year across Europe, new CPR provisions aim to highlight key and emblematic operations, and set the stage for them to tell the programme’s story and Cohesion policy’s contribution. It is up to Member States and managing authorities to set out the operations of strategic importance.

European Committee of the Regions: Commission for the Environment, Climate Change and Energy, Paltriguera, L., Vona, L., Vroom, I. and Markowska, A., The contribution of EU cities and regions to the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, European Committee of the Regions, 2024.

This study identifies and analyses best practices in biodiversity conservation and nature restoration across European cities and regions, and assesses how they relate to the targets of the Kunming Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF). The study touches upon governance, policy frameworks, enabling factors, measurable outputs, and impacts of the projects, as well as challenges faced by local and regional authorities in implementing biodiversity protection and ecosystem restoration measures.

European Commission: Joint Research Centre, Dijkstra, L. and Jacobs-Crisioni, C., Defining functional rural areas, Publications Office of the European Union, 2024.

Our understanding of rural areas in the EU is limited by the lack of comparable geographies. Good analysis is built on spatial units that have similar characteristics. For example, they should be similar in size and capture a similar type of territory. For rural areas, regions are too big and thus include a wide range of territories, while municipalities (local administrative units) are in most cases too small and differ too much in size between Member States. This brief describes a new geography to improve our understanding of rural life: Functional Rural Areas or FRAs.

European Investment Bank, EIB Group activities in EU cohesion regions 2023, European Investment Bank, 2024.

This year's EIB Group Activities in EU Cohesion Regions report focuses on the importance of building inclusive communities. This report analyses the EIB Group’s activity in cohesion regions in 2023, with particular emphasis on targeted social investments in key systemic enablers in those regions, such as access to essential services (e.g. inclusive healthcare and education, social and affordable housing), digital connectivity and the growth of mid-caps and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), the latter with a particular focus on women entrepreneurs and youth.

European Commission: Directorate-General for Regional and Urban Policy, De Dominicis, L., Cabeza Martinez, B., Kovacic, M. and Papadimitriou, E., The EU regional Social Progress Index 2.0 – 2024 edition, Publications Office of the European Union, 2024.

Measuring economic development beyond GDP is of paramount importance for fostering regional cohesion, promoting inclusive growth, and advancing sustainable development. Therefore, there is a growing emphasis in the European Union on incorporating alternative metrics that offer a more comprehensive assessment of progress and well-being across EU regions. Against this backdrop, the EU regional Social Progress Index (EU-SPI) has proved to be a valuable tool, complementing traditional economic indicators by capturing a broader range of social factors contributing to well-being. The 2024 edition of the EU-SPI seeks to improve the previous editions of the index making it an even more powerful tool in measuring social progress across EU regions in its many dimensions.

European Commission: Directorate-General for Research and Innovation, European Innovation Scoreboard 2024, Publications Office of the European Union, 2024,:

This study provides the results of the 2024 edition of the European Innovation Scoreboard. The European Innovation Scoreboard (EIS). published annually since 2001, provides a comparative assessment of the research and innovation (R&I) performance of EU Member States, neighbouring European countries and selected third countries (global competitors). It helps stakeholders assess areas in which they need to concentrate their efforts to boost innovation performance, considering the national socio-economic context (which is captured by a complementary set of structural indicators to help interpret the results).

European Commission, Eurostat, EU Publications Office, 2024.

The Eurostat regional yearbook provides you with an overview of economic, social, demographic and environmental developments in the EU regions. It includes data for regions in 27 EU countries, 4 EFTA countries, as well as 9 candidate countries. An extensive set of indicators is presented in the form of maps, figures and infographics: these have been designed to highlight regional variations and similarities. The Eurostat regional yearbook gives you the opportunity to journey across our continent looking at a broad range of topics described in numbers.

European Commission, Directorate-General for Regional and Urban Policy, EU Publications Office, 2023.

While many regions have flourished in recent decades, many others are stuck — or are at risk of becoming stuck— in a development trap. Such regions experience relative decline in economic growth, employment, and productivity relative to their neighbours and to their own past economic trajectories. Many of these regions have been in a development trap for lengthy periods of time and this condition is increasing political discontent and unrest. Such discontent is often translated into support for anti-system parties at the ballot box. In this paper we study the link between the risk, intensity, and length of regional development traps and the rise of discontent in the European Union (EU) — proxied by the support for Eurosceptic parties in national elections between 2014 and 2022— using an econometric analysis at a regional level. The results highlight the strong connection between being stuck in a development trap and support for Eurosceptic parties. They also suggest that the longer the period of stagnation, the stronger the support for parties that oppose European integration. This relationship is also robust to considering only the most extreme Eurosceptic parties or to including parties that display more moderate levels of Euroscepticism.

European Parliamentary Research Service (EPRS), 2023.

This guide has been put together to serve as a source of information for regional and local authorities, NGOs, businesses, professionals and
citizens on how to access funding for their projects from a number of EU funds.

European Commission: Directorate-General for Energy, Mapping of renewable energy projects with regional impact, Publications Office of the European Union, 2024.

The objective of this study is to provide supporting evidence which analyses the role of renewable energy generation projects with regional impact as a driver for more successful implementation of the Fit for 55 package and the increased ambition for renewable energy and support the swift implementation of such projects. The study aims to assist the Commission in implementing the policy for support of the deployment of renewables in line with the European Green Deal objectives and the increased ambition for renewables by the revised Renewable Energy Directive, by utilising the untapped potential of the cooperation between Member States on renewables. This study provides a clear overview on the existing and planned concrete renewable energy projects having cross-border relevance, by defining a set of criteria for defining renewable energy projects that are relevant in a regional context.

European Commission: Directorate-General for Regional and Urban Policy, Durán Laguna, J., D'Apice, P., Grzegorzewska, M., De Franceschi, F. et al., Ninth report on economic, social and territorial cohesion, Durán Laguna, J.(editor), Publications Office of the European Union, 2024.

The 9th Cohesion Report highlights significant achievements of Cohesion Policy in terms of fostering upwards economic and social convergence in the Union. Challenges remain especially at regional level, and these will be further impacted by structural transformations. Lessons learned from past implementation periods, and from the interplay with other instruments, underline the need for further improvement of the design of Cohesion Policy. A stronger and modernised policy is essential to fortify Europe’s growth model, to build an inclusive Union, and to deliver on the Treaty objective of economic, social and territorial cohesion.

European Commission: Directorate-General for Research and Innovation, Viscido, S., Strauka, O. and Coroler, E., Policy landscape supporting technology infrastructures in Europe – Final report, Publications Office of the European Union, 2024.

This report presents the results of the study “Policy Landscape Supporting Technology Infrastructures in Europe”. It consists in a thorough landscape analysis of all types of strategies, policies, programmes, instruments, public and private investment plans and funding streams supporting Technology Infrastructures at regional, national and EU levels. It provides background information to support the discussions on the development of a more strategic and coordinated approach to Technology Infrastructures in Europe, in the context of the European Research Area (ERA) Action 12. In addition to the EU level analysis, the study covered the 27 EU Members States, five selected Third Countries namely Canada, Japan, Switzerland, the UK and the US, and included a more detailed analysis through 12 case studies

European Commission: Directorate-General for Research and Innovation, Viscido, S., Strauka, O., Coroler, E., Pupelytė, A. et al., Policy landscape supporting technology infrastructures in Europe – Final report. Annex II, Case studies, Publications Office of the European Union, 2024.

This Case Studies’ report is annexed to the EC-commissioned study on the “Policy Landscape Supporting Technology Infrastructures in Europe”. It provides an in-depth analysis on 12 specific topics of interest for the development of a European approach to Technology Infrastructures. The developed 12 case studies cover the funding programmes and instruments supporting TIs; mechanisms that enable the synergies of funds supporting TIs; TI cases with specific business models, roadmapping exercises for TIs and other technology-specific topics (defence, advanced material). The results of these analyses is integrated into the final report of the study.

European Committee of the Regions: Commission for Citizenship, Governance, Institutional and External Affairs, Sidło, K., Polak, A. and Aleszko-Lessels, O., Preparing for the enlargement from a territorial perspective – Governance, policies and investments to ensure the role and means of LRAs in an enlarged EU, European Committee of the Regions, 2024.

The study explores how enlargement would affect the Cohesion Policy and the Common Agricultural Policy areas with a deep impact on local and regional authorities, as well as the allocation of European Structural and Investment Funds (ESIF) at regional and local level. Taking into account three scenarios (no enlargement, new "big bang," and staged enlargement), it also looks into the governance framework and the key institutional reforms needed to enhance the role of local and regional authorities in the enlargement process and in the new, enlarged EU.

European Commission: Directorate-General for Communication, Public opinion in the EU regions – January-February 2024 – Report, European Commission, 2024.

This Flash Eurobarometer, ‘Public opinion in the EU regions’ (FL539), was conducted at the request of the Directorate-General for Communication. The survey is designed to assess the views of EU citizens living in each of 194 individual regions across the 27 EU Member States.

European Committee of the Regions, Shaping global biodiversity policies – EU cities and regions at CBD COP16 – Cali, Colombia 21 October – 1 November 2024, European Committee of the Regions, 2024.

The European Committee of the Regions (CoR) – the EU’s political assembly of cities and regions – will participate at the 16th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD COP16). The CoR delegation will represent the voices of EU local and regional authorities to successfully implement measures, policies and initiatives for restoring and protecting biodiversity. The CoR delegation will also advocate for the recognition of the crucial role of subnational governments in the revised National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans (NBSAPs).

European Committee of the Regions, 2024.

A snapshot of the most pressing challenges faced by regions and cities across Europe, as well as solutions from the ground to inform EU policy decisions.

European Economic and Social Committee, Structured and meaningful youth participation in policy and decision-making processes – Mapping local, national, EU and international good practices study, European Economic and Social Committee, 2024

This study explores effective practices for youth participation in policy and decision-making processes, providing a comprehensive overview of what youth participation means and its key characteristics. The aim of the study is to provide recommendations for mainstreaming structured and meaningful youth participation within the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) and other EU institutions, in line with the EU Youth Strategy and the UN Youth Strategy, and based on good practices at local, national, EU, and international levels.

European Parliament, Directorate-General for Internal Policies of the Union, EU Publications Office, 2023.

The Territorial Agenda 2030 ‘A future for all places’ is the latest in a long line of intergovernmental documents paving the way for territorial cohesion in Europe. It defines two overarching objectives, a Just Europe and a Green Europe, which have six priorities for developing the European territory as a whole along with all its places. This paper provides an introduction to the agenda and the state of play of its application.