A renewed territorial agenda for the EU

The main objective of the territorial agenda is to strengthen territorial cohesion, an EU principle that seeks to ensure the balanced development of the EU and reduce its regional disparities. Agreed in May 2011 and the culmination of a process begun many years earlier with the European Spatial Development Perspective, the Territorial Agenda 2020 has recently been renewed with a view to establishing a continued role for this initiative within the EU's new cohesion policy framework beyond 2020. Aimed at ensuring the Europe 2020 strategy was implemented in line with the principle of territorial cohesion, the Territorial Agenda 2020 strived to promote the integration of the territorial dimension across many different policies. To deliver on this ambition, it established an action-oriented political framework based around six territorial priorities and a series of implementation mechanisms to make EU territorial cohesion a reality. However, with the territorial agenda a low political priority in past years, implementation remained weak, while the process itself was beset by challenges, such as fragile intergovernmental cooperation and a low level of awareness. This situation was compounded by the complex and abstract nature of the territorial agenda, making it difficult to communicate its aims and objectives. Set up in 2018 during the Austrian Presidency, an intergovernmental taskforce led the work on the renewal of the territorial agenda, the aim being to conclude the process under the German Presidency, leading to the adoption of the Territorial Agenda 2030 in December 2020. Spanned by two overarching priorities, a 'just Europe' and a 'green Europe', the renewed territorial agenda establishes a clear link with the European Commission's current priorities and its strategy for sustainable growth, the European Green Deal. While this structure has the potential to help embed the territorial agenda more firmly within the EU's policy-making system, increasing its relevance and improving its visibility, the advent of this important addition to the EU's territorial toolbox risks being overshadowed by the rollout of the new MFF in the months ahead. This is an updated edition of a Briefing from March 2020.