A renewed territorial cohesion narrative for the EU territorial agenda

Abstract

The notion of territorial cohesion resulted from a long process which was initiated as early as 1989, during the first informal ministerial meeting of ministers responsible for spatial planning (Böhme 2011: 18). It was, however, with the publication of the European Spatial Development Perspective (ESDP) in 1999, that the concept of territorial cohesion was brought into the EU agenda (Vanolo 2010: 1305). Until it was formally included in the EU (Lisbon) Treaty in 2009, as an EU policy goal, alongside the goals of economic and social cohesion, territorial cohesion was an important line of enquiry in the first ESPON programme (2000–2006) (Abrahams 2014: 2136).