Measuring territorial cohesion is not a mission impossible

Abstract

Territorial cohesion, recognized by the Treaty of Lisbon, has been subject to various policy and academic debates. Despite various efforts to operationalize it, territorial cohesion has remained at the level of policy intention and overall guiding policy paradigm rather than a clearly defined policy goal or task. Recently new light on possible measurement of territorial cohesion has been shed by some ESPON research. This paper examines the reasons and conditions of successful measurement of territorial cohesion . We conclude that the operationalization of territorial cohesion is the most promising when using the frameworks of existing policies and that such operationalization on smaller geographical scales (below the EU) might be easier and more productive than at the EU level.