Issues of Territoriality and Territorial Cohesion in the Revision of the TSP and the Territorial Agenda – a Sort of Connection between Geography and Regional Policy

Abstract

After Hungary was asked according to the Territorial Agenda (TA), agreed in the informal ministerial meeting under the German Presidency in May 2007, it undertook the responsibility to evaluate and review the TA and update the closely related Territorial States and Perspectives of the European Union (TSP). The TA has a key importance due to the fact that it had been the first document which identified joint action oriented framework of spatial (territorial) policy on the EU level. The TSP (as basic evidence of the TA) in its more synthetic chapters attempted to identify more integrated territorial structures of the European territory including main geographic dimensions such as northsouth and east-west dichotomies, polycentricity and urban-rural patterns. Due to the changes in the driving forces and the new conditions of an enlarged EU, the content and also the function should be revised. The paper is aiming to introduce some of the main findings of the TSP/ TA revision process with special reference to the new aspects and trends related to the territorial structures of the Union and the spatial structure of Europe. Finally, some solutions will be introduced which could help to enhance the currently not enough strong territorial approach within TSP and TA.