Translation glossary

The European Region Development Fund (ERDF) is an EU fund which is intended to help reduce imbalances between regions of the Community. The Fund was set up in 1975, and grants financial assistance for development projects in the poorer regions. In terms of financial resources, the ERDF is by far the largest of the EU's Structural Funds. The main aim of the ERDF is to overcome the structural deficiencies of the poorer regions in order to reduce the gap between these regions and the richer ones.

European Structural and Investment Funds (ESIF) finance cohesion policy for the period 2014-20. The ESIF consist of five different funds, which are all covered by Regulation (EU) No 1303/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council, the so-called ‘Common Provisions Regulation’. The Structural Funds have two components: the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), providing financial support since 1975 for the development and structural adjustment of regional economies, economic change, enhanced competitiveness as well as territorial cooperation throughout the EU; and the European Social Fund (ESF), set up in 1958 and seeking to contribute to the adaptability of workers and enterprises, access to employment and participation in the labour market, social inclusion of disadvantaged people, combating all forms of discrimination, and creating partnerships to manage reforms in employment. The other three funds constituting the ESIF are the Cohesion Fund, which supports exclusively less-developed Member States; the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development; and the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund.

The European Territorial Cooperation (ETC) objective of the EU's Cohesion Policy supports cooperation across borders of the EU. The 3 dimensions of the ETC Objective: (1) Cross-Border Cooperation: helps transform regions located on either side of borders of the European Union into strong economic and social poles. In particular cross-border actions are encouraged in the fields of entrepreneurship, improving joint management of natural resources, supporting links between urban and rural areas, improving access to transport and communication networks, developing joint use of infrastructure, administrative cooperation and capacity building, employment, community interaction, culture and social affairs. (2) Transnational Cooperation: promotes cooperation among greater European regions, including the ones surrounding sea basins (e.g., Baltic Sea Region, North Sea, Mediterranean and Atlantic Area) or mountain ranges (e.g., Alpine Space) and facilitates coordinated strategic responses to joint challenges like flood management, transport and communication corridors, international business and research linkages, urban development and others. Special attention is given to outermost and island regions (e.g., Indian Ocean, Caribbean Area or Northern Periphery). (3) Interregional Cooperation: provides a framework for the exchange of experiences between local and regional actors from across Europe in order to contribute to the EU’s strategies on growth, jobs and sustainable development. In addition, it aims at reducing disparities by matching less experienced regions with more advanced regions in the various policy fields such as innovation, demographic change, energy supply and climate change.

ESPON is an applied research programme aimed at supporting the formulation of territorial development policies in Europe. To this end, the programme produces wide-ranging and systematic data on territorial trends related to various economic, social and environmental aspects, with a view to identifying the potential of regions, cities and larger territories and the economic challenges they face. ESPON activities cover all EU Member States, plus Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland, and involve more than 130 bodies across the continent. They conduct different kinds of studies (thematic, policy impact, cross-theme, scientific networking, capacity-building) and produce territorial data in the form of statistics, analyses and maps. One of the major challenges of ESPON therefore involves making this material accessible and understandable to local policy-makers. At EU level, the results of ESPON research efforts provide a source of comparable information that can be used to improve the Union's competitiveness and its sustainable development. In the 2014-20 programming period, ESPON will function as a European Grouping for Territorial Cooperation (EGTC). Its main focus is on thematic objective 11: Enhancing institutional capacity of public authorities and stakeholders and efficient public administration.

Evaluation is the periodic assessment of the efficiency, effectiveness, impact, sustainability and relevance of a project/programme in the context of stated objectives. This assessment is usually undertaken as an independent examination with a view to drawing lessons that may guide future decision-making.