EU Cohesion Policy post-2020, European Green Deal and Territorial Agenda 2030. The future of the place-based approach in the new EU policy framework in the context of COVID-19

Abstract

The European Union’s strategic priorities for the post-2020 period – focused on areas such as globalization, demography, migration, climate change, security and defense, employment and digitalization of the economy and society – pose relevant challenges as to the feasibility of its territorialization conditions and how to ensure operationalization at regional and local levels. As the EU prepares to implement the Cohesion Policy 2021-2027 and draw up the Territorial Agenda 2030, it also seeks to relaunch the EU policy framework in areas such as sustainable development, artificial intelligence and reindustrialization, examples of which are: European Green Deal, EU Circular Economy Action Plan and EU Digital Strategy. The current context of the COVID-19 pandemic has, however, forced a refocusing of the intervention priorities, at least in the short term, in the need to respond to the urgent economic, social and public health challenges caused by the pandemic. This article seeks to analyse, on the one hand, how the European policy cycle has adapted to respond to the pandemic, and on the other, the extent to which the place-based approach, one of the central operating rationales of the 2014-2020 financial perspective, may see its role strengthened and its performance extended as a consequence of the changes introduced in the current phase of the policy cycle due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The analysis carried out led to concluding that the current context of COVID-19 is implying the redesign of many of the Union’s public policy instruments and reordering some of the current strategic priorities. It is also changing the conditions of resilience and competitiveness of territories, whereby the place-based approach seems to be a public policy instrument especially suited to the process of economic and social recovery at the local and regional level.

Creativity as a Key Constituent for Smart Specialization Strategies (S3), What Is in It for Peripheral Regions? Co-creating Sustainable and Resilient Tourism with Cultural and Creative Industries

“…In this context, S3, as a place-based approach, particularly supports economic and social recovery at the local and regional level, as a result of changing resilience and competition conditions [100] (p. 33). Rationally, this policy should be better embedded in lagging or peripheral regions [101][102][103][104][105].…”

New approach towards border regions in the Territorial Agenda 2030

“…It integrates the bottom-up and top-down modes of governance in cross-border arrangements into a common multi-level framework. It also promotes synergies between the Territorial Agenda and overarching EU strategies and policies (Neto, 2020). Last but not least it integrates place-based approaches and coordination of sector policies in terms of their territorial impacts and coherence.…”

“…It is an intergovernmental strategy for Europe and its regions, presenting a common vision of spatial development of the European area. It is not the first document of its kind but rather follows a series of earlier similar documents like The European Spatial Development Perspective (ESDP) adopted in 1999 by the Council of Ministers responsible for Spatial Planning, Territorial Agenda of the European Union (TA) adopted in 2007 and Territorial Agenda of the European Union 2020 (TA 2020) adopted in 2011 by the by Ministers responsible for spatial planning and development (Neto, 2020). The TA 2030 resulted from intergovernmental cooperation on spatial and urban policy, comprising initiatives, policies and documents that have been developed in dialogue between Member States and the Commission.…”

Supporting Local Implementation of the European Green Deal through a Place-Based, Participatory Approach: Methodology for a Comprehensive Analytical Framework

“…According to Barca, the three fundamental points of the place-based approach are "the place-specificity of natural and institutional resources and of individual preferences and knowledge, the role played by (material and immaterial) linkages between places, and the resulting need for interventions to be tailored to places" [34] (p. 4). Tomaney emphasises both the endogenous and participatory nature of this approach and "the ability of places to grow drawing on their own resources, notably their human capital and innovative capacities" [35] (p. 6) and, at the same time, the need for "the involvement of a wide range of stakeholders and mechanisms for identifying assets in the local economy that can be the basis for local growth strategies" [9] (p. 35). In this way, a very widespread narrative has developed, particularly in the EU, which can be summarised as "place matters" [30], or "regions matter" [32].…”

“…The project is trialing participatory and deliberative processes in eleven pilot areas on a national, regional, or local level in various European countries. EU policies are increasingly asserting the need to apply a place-based approach to contemporary challenges, particularly those imposed by the ecological transition process [7][8][9].…”