Debating the urban dimension of territorial cohesion

The Territorial Cohesion goal was only included in the EU Treaty by 2009, with a view to promote a more balanced and harmonious European territory. One year earlier (2008), the European Commission (EC) published the ‘Green Paper on Territorial Cohesion—Turning territorial diversity into strength’. Neither one, nor the other, clearly defines the meaning of the Territorial Cohesion concept. The later, however, proposes three main policy responses towards more balanced and harmonious development: (i) Concentration: overcoming differences in density; (ii) Connecting territories: overcoming distance; and (iii) Cooperation: overcoming division. Although not explicitly, this document identifies several ‘urban questions’ to be dealt when promoting territorial cohesive policies: avoiding diseconomies of very large agglomerations and urban sprawl processes, combating urban decay and social exclusion, avoiding excessive concentrations of growth, promoting access to integrated transport systems and creating metropolitan bodies. In this light, this chapter proposes to debate the importance of the urban dimension to achieve the goal of territorial cohesion at several territorial levels.info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersio

The progress of RES environment in the most recent member states of the EU

The most recent EU member states seem to have important Renewable Energy Sources (RES) potential. However, they have serious structural difficulties in development and integration of RES policies. Indeed, the balanced development of RES between the member states is urgent today. The penetration of the RES in these member states is related to the existence of an appropriate environment (political, economical, social, and technological). The current paper is based on an analytical review and specific PEST analysis aiming to assess the current RES environment and the progress so far in each of these most recent EU members. © 2010 Elsevier Ltd