What territorial cooperation between Europe and its Neighbourhoods?

Michel Lebrun, CoR President, together with Elmar Brok i, MEP, Chair of the European Parliament's AFET Committee, will discuss on 12 November with representatives of the European Parliament, European Commission, Council, the European External Action Service (EEAS), Committee of the Regions and academia, the role of data and better grass-root knowledge of the European Neighbourhood at the Integrated Territorial Analysis of the Neighbourhoods (ITAN) dissemination conference.

Co-financed by the European Commission's ESPON 2013 Programme (the European Observation Network for Territorial Development and Cohesion), the Territorial Analysis of the Neighbourhoods (ITAN) project has three objectives:

• 1) 

  Providing territorial evidence for a better knowledge of the EU neighbourhood (from Morocco to Russia and the Arctic territories), their dynamics, flows between these areas and the European territory;

• 2) 

  Building a sustainable local database by combining diverse data types (statistical, network, grid data) at local level in each country of the European neighbourhoods, compliant with the ESPON database of European territories;

• 3) 

  Giving recommendations on territorial cooperation to be picked-up in the territorial agenda of the EU Member States (plus Iceland, Lichtenstein, Norway and Switzerland) and the neighbour countries, and to be included within the European Neighbourhood Policy.

The Brussels dissemination event will highlight ITAN main results, with focus on Western Balkans and on Ukraine. Major European institutions will give their feedback: the President of the Committee of the Regions, the DG ENLARG Director in charge with Regional cooperation, the President of the European Parliament Foreign affairs commission, the Director for Northern Africa & Middle East of the European External Action Service (EEAS), the Deputy Head of the DG REGIO Analysis Unit. Other speakers come from the civil society and academia.

Venue:

Committee of the Regions, 101 Rue Belliard, Brussels

Meeting Room JDE 70 (7 th floor)

Time: 2pm-6.30pm

Registration and agenda: http://www.gis-cist.fr/events/what-territorial-cooperation-between-europe-and-its-neighbourhoods/

The ESPON 2013 Programme, the European Observation Network for Territorial Development and Cohesion, was adopted by the European Commission on 7 November 2007. The programme budget of €47 mill is part-financed at the level of 75 % by the European Regional Development Fund under Objective 3 for European Territorial Cooperation. The rest is financed by 31 countries participating, 27 EU Member States and Iceland, Lichtenstein, Norway and Switzerland. The mission of the ESPON 2013 Programme is to: “Support policy development in relation to the aim of territorial cohesion and a harmonious development of the European territory by (1) providing comparable information, evidence, analyses and scenarios on territorial dynamics and (2) revealing territorial capital and potentials for development of regions and larger territories contributing to European competitiveness, territorial cooperation and a sustainable and balanced development .

Contacts

Press & Media Requests:

Branislav Stanicek

EU Committee of the Regions

Tel.: +32 02 282 2471

E-mail: branislav.stanicek@cor.europa.eu

Scientific Coordinator:

Pierre Beckouche

Professor at Paris 1 Pantheon-Sorbonne University

President of the CIST Scientific Council

Institute of Geography, 191 rue St Jacques, 75005-Paris

Tel Mob.: +33 6 86 99 14 66

E-mail: beckouch@univ-paris1.fr