Policy brief: Why Europe’s future depends on its places and territories

A new ‘Territorial Thinkers’ briefing (August 2026), Why Europe’s future depends on its places and territories reflects on main messages put forward by the authors over the past 10 years and adapts them to the current situation. The authors – Peter Mehlbye, Peter Schön, Derek Martin and Kai Böhme – summarise their key observations and offer some policy pointers for 2028-2034, as follows:

Key observations from the last 10 years

In short, key observations from the last 10 years of territorial thinking can be condensed as follows:

• There can be no effective economic or social cohesion in a fragmented territory.
• Europe’s various crises all expose place-specific and territorial vulnerabilities in different ways.
• Territory is no longer only about reducing disparities, but also about creating attractive places.
• Policies designed without considering the diversity of places and territories risk exacerbating inequalities rather than reducing them, and ignoring place-specific development opportunities.
• Places and territories are increasingly recognised as a strategic asset for the EU.
• Europe’s territorial challenges and opportunities are embedded in a wider global context shaped by a more multipolar world, shifting economic power and geopolitical uncertainty.
• Effective, future-oriented European policies require clear, strong and strategic outlook and multi-level governance that uses places and territories as the backbone of a new, innovative policy conception.

Policy pointers for 2028-2034

On that backdrop, key pointers for a policy innovation that can meet the increasing number of policy arenas and challenges affecting Europe in the decade ahead, include the following:

• Transform National and Regional Partnership Plans into Strategic Investment Frameworks. National and Regional Partnership Plans should become integrated, place-based strategic investment frameworks aligned across sectors, regions and governance levels. Supported by mandatory overall territorial strategies, stronger coordination and territorial impact assessment, they should improve policy coherence, investment effectiveness and responsiveness to Europe’s diverse territorial needs.
• Reframe Competitiveness and Transformation as a Territorial Property. Competitiveness and the green transition emerge from territorial ecosystems of people, firms, skills, institutions. Infrastructure and the physical environment. EU policy should recognise the contribution of all regions, leverage place-based assets for innovation, and ensure that rural and peripheral regions share fairly in the benefits of the green transition.
• Mandate Stronger Territorial Impact Assessment. Territorial Impact Assessment should become mandatory for major EU legislation and investment proposals, alongside environmental and social assessments. It should identify place-specific impacts, synergies and trade-offs while systematically integrating local and regional knowledge to strengthen policy quality and long-term effectiveness.
• Institutionalise Multilevel Governance that Works. The EU should strengthen permanent multilevel governance with clear responsibilities across all levels of government, ensuring that territorial priorities shape investment decisions. This should include stronger citizen participation, sustained cross-border cooperation, and be based on a clearer overall territorial vision to reinforce cohesion and integrated policymaking.

These four priorities should guide the preparation of National and Regional Partnership Plans, the EU’s 10th Cohesion Report and the next programming period.  The next EU budget should not simply finance policies—it should organise them around Europe’s territorial diversity as a strategic asset for future competitiveness, resilience and cohesion.

The ‘Territorial Thinkers’ briefing is available HERE