European Cohesion in 2050?

February 2022

In February the European Commission published the 8th Cohesion Report under the heading of ‘Cohesion in Europe towards 2050’ (Opens in a new window). As usual for Cohesion Reports, the report provides a comprehensive overview on the state of play in regional development and key cohesion challenges in Europe.

This covers a wide range of topics, including

• the COVID-19 pandemic’s asymmetric impacts on local and regional development,

• regional competitiveness and the risk of ‘development traps’, the performance of the less developed regions against the more developed ones and of rural areas compared to cities,

• the consequences of climate change the loss of biodiversity and the need to act upon these,

• the importance of good connectivity in Europe, the need to shift towards sustainable mobility, and the potential of rail transport and digital services,

• the social inequalities in Europe, between different parts of the EU, between urban and rural areas, between EU migrants and non-EU migrations, or between men and women,

• the uneven demographic outlooks, also linked to variations in life expectancy, satisfaction with life, access to services of general interest, and residents’ trust in governance bodies,

• the importance and territorial variations of good and trusted governance and e-governance, and

• Cohesion policy investments and impacts.

These are just a few features addressed in the Cohesion Report. Each of them reveals a wealth of relevant information and findings on decreasing or increasing disparities, development trends and future potential and challenges. The report offers a good complement to Eurostat’s annual yearbooks and goes into much more depths in many areas.