Much EU thinking around Territorial Cohesion - formalised as an EU objective area in the Lisbon Treaty of 2009 - is contained within the Territoral Agenda 2020 (TA2020) pronouncement.
The original document set out the thoughts of Council ministers who met in March 2011 under the aegis of the Hungarian presidency, Click here. The doucument included a call for a review of the agenda to be undertaken in 2015-16.
A paper commissioned by the succeeding Polish presidency of later 2011, and entitled "How to strengthen the territorial dimension of Europe 2020 and the EU Cohesion Policy" gave interesting insight into how the agenda was perceived shortly after its initial adoption and the extent of the potential that TA2020 was felt to possess. Click here
As a companion piece to the document above the Polish presidency also commissioned a roadmap for TA2020. Click here
Also interested in progress was a report which set out to monitor the level of success in achieving TA2020 goals was published by ESPON in December 2014. To follow.
A Committee of the Regions own-initiative opinion was published in early 2015 asking that the role and degree of influence of TA2020 be increased and its implementation improved. Click here
The "Riga Declaration" of 2015 on the Urban Agenda makes references to the centrality of TA2020 in any such agenda development and is also therefore relevant. Click here
A related series of papers published in July 2015 under the title of "TA 2020 Put into Practice" arguing for a place-based approach within TA2020:
A document highlighting the "place-based" dimension
Last updated: 30 August, 2020
