Territorial Cohesion — Between Expectations, Disparities and Contradictions

Abstract

Current spatial development policy in EU countries has been intensively influenced, in addition to economic and social cohesion, by a new concept — the concept of territorial cohesion (TC). As the term ‘territorial cohesion’ was initially introduced in the political sphere, it has evoked, independently from the process of new treaty ratification, many discussions about the substance of this concept. The task of elaborating the concept and translating it into European policies intensively has occupied politicians, practitioners and academicians since the term “territorial cohesion” first appeared in the proposal for a new treaty. EU informal ministerial meetings on territorial cohesion in Rotterdam (2004) and the Informal Meeting of Ministers for Regional Policy and Territorial Cohesion in Luxemburg (2005) focused on the interlinks between the territorial cohesion concept and the Lisbon-Gothenburg strategy and defined the political direction in the European discussion on this topic. The Luxemburg meeting stressed the importance of stimulating a broad interdisciplinary EU dialogue on territorial cohesion with EU institutions and local and regional actors which would reflect the reality of the delaying fundamental interdisciplinary professional discussion, thus creating the theoretical background for territorial cohesion in terms of a political spatial development concept.