ESPON ESCAPE - European Shrinking Rural Areas: Challenges, Actions and Perspectives for Territorial Governance

This project focuses upon European rural regions experiencing or threatened by demographic decline. The central objectives are to understand the process(es) driving shrinkage, map the heterogeneity within this group of regions, and devise intervention logic(s) for more appropriate integrated policy approaches, which pro-actively push forward strategies based upon territorial assets and emerging opportunities, whilst recognising the need to ameliorate the effects of some continued decline, and bearing in mind the “intervention tools” available within the EU Cohesion and ESIF policy

It will provide knowledge and evidence on the causes and consequences of socio-economic change in Europe’s rural regions and explore innovative territorial governance solutions for rural regions experiencing acute, and often irreversible depopulation and economic decline. It will also offer recommendations for the better coordination and effectiveness of policy interventions, particularly for the targeted design, implementation and funding of integrated place-based strategies within the context of European Union Rural Development and Cohesion Policy.

https://www.espon.eu/escape