All four freedoms of the European Single Market, i.e., the free movement of goods, capital, services, and labour, rely on connectivity. Both the physical and virtual dimensions of connectivity have strong direct and indirect territorial implications, as both link places, trade and human activities.

ESPON’s longstanding research on physical connectivity (Accessibility indicators, ESPON TRACC, etc.) demonstrate that, overall, there are significant disparities in accessibility at the regional and local levels. From most locations in Europe, at least one regional centre can be reached in less than 60 minutes’ travel time, however, only in western Europe more than five different cities can be reached within this 1-hour time frame (ESPON State of the European Territory Report, 2019). According to the latest European Commission analysis, cities consistently perform better than suburbs and rural areas in all European countries, for instance, when regional and territorial accessibility indicators for rail (1) or road (2) are considered. The rail network is less developed in eastern Member States, with no connections with speeds above 150 km/h and a rail speed below 60 km/h on 60 % of the routes. Furthermore, 1 out of 5 city pairs in eastern Member States has no rail connection (3). The overall infrastructure endowment is still much lower in eastern Europe which hampers territorial connectivity; in this context, the latest analysis shows that, for instance, road performance (ratio between accessibility and proximity) is heavily dependent on the total road length, where motorways have a far bigger impact on road performance compared to secondary roads (4).

The core-periphery pattern visible in terms of physical accessibility is also valid for digital connectivity, albeit in recent years (2019 – 2022) the gap has been considerably closing due to the Covid-19 pandemic that accelerated the access to and use of internet. In terms of broadband access, in 2019 the share of households which had access to broadband connection were much lower in eastern and southern European regions whereas in 2021 only a handful of regions (for instance, in Bulgaria, Portugal, Italy etc.) demonstrated low accessibility compared to other regions (5). However, urban–rural divide is still much present, and broadband access is consistently much better in cities compared to suburbs and rural areas. The JRC analysis of the spatial patterns of broadband accessibility revealed that urban areas enjoy easy access to the highest broadband available, whereas rural and remote areas may not even reach the minimum standard of 30 Mbps. The analysis also highlighted the fact that the digital divide in fact must be seen from an urban–nonurban perspective (6). The analysis across the OECD space indicates similar conclusions - residents in metropolitan regions experience 40% faster Internet than those in regions farther away (7).

As far as use of internet is concerned, according to Eurostat, in 2022 already 84% of the EU’s population aged 16–74 years, reportedly, used the internet on a daily basis, the share of people using the internet on a daily basis tended to increase more rapidly in those regions where internet use was initially low (8). However, there are widespread disparities between EU regions in terms of use of the internet (for instance buying goods and services, using internet banking) along broad geographical lines: northern and western European regions, generally, record higher levels than southern or eastern regions.

As demonstrated by the European Strategy and Policy Analysis System (ESPAS) and the work by the European Committee of the Regions on digital cohesion, digital divide spans across several domains concerning digital skills, infrastructure development, digitalization of public services, etc., and geography (urban vs rural) is at the heart of it (9). Moreover, the Committee of the Regions’ analysis shows that despite the fact that COVID-19 accelerated digital transition, digital divides are still present and are even growing (10). Academic research on modelling digital development at the regional level suggests that convergence trends related to the access to digital technologies (broadband and internet use) are expected to continue, but the digital divide existing in Europe for international e-commerce and e-government interactions is likely to not disappear in the coming years, unless more is done from the policy perspective (11).

This dichotomy of urban/developed and connected vs rural/underdeveloped and disconnected is rather hard to resolve, perhaps even impossible in some cases, thus “smart digital” is the new connector, bringing new opportunities for the less connected areas, where physical or digital connectivity is handicapped. Smart digital transition can improve access to services and transform the way territories respond to territorial development challenges stemming from physical accessibility, remoteness and peripherality.

The following types of challenges have been found relevant to this TAP theme.

(1) In 2022, the European Parliament and the Council reached an agreement on establishing the Policy Programme “Path to the Digital Decade”, which sets out a clear roadmap to achieve the ambitious targets of the Digital Compass (the monitoring vehicle of the Digital Decade), for instance - “100% online accessibility of key public services for the EU’s citizens and businesses” by 2030. From the territorial perspective, the ongoing initiatives like “smart villages” is an adequate response to make the digital transition a reality for everyone, not only for those who live in “smart cities”. However, more efforts are needed, for instance, initiatives like living-in.eu effortlessly provide support to make digital solutions available in any place (“smart communities”). Nevertheless, if the path to the digital decade is to be achieved, all levels of government need to provide their input in establishing a digital strategy/roadmap, especially at the local level - which is at the heart of public service delivery, in order to avoid any digital divides in the future.  

(2) The benefits of digitalisation include economic growth, the creation of new types of jobs, improved public services and access to services, and opportunities to combat peripherality through digital connectivity. So far, the digitally more developed regions of Northern and Central Europe overlap with the knowledge and innovation regions. However, as demonstrated by the ESPON T4 project, new islands of innovation have appeared on the European regional map also in the lagging territories, thus, the old dichotomy of rich and technologically leading countries vs. poor and technologically lagging behind countries may no longer be entirely true. For this to become a further reality, there is a need for a profound adaptation in terms of improving digital skills. For instance, according to Eurostat, use of social networks is standing out as not showcasing a clear regional divide. Surprisingly, despite relatively low levels of internet access, many eastern regions of the EU recorded quite high shares of people participating in social networks (12). This indicates that even less developed regions could demonstrate a potential for reaping the benefits of digitalisation via the right stimuli to improve digital skills. The European Year of Skills (2023) will be a good opportunity to fast-track the process of improving digital skills at all territorial levels.  

(3) Digitalisation enables the provision of modern public services (e.g., e-government, e-health, e-energy and e-transport), while digital public services bring benefits for citizens and governments. These include reduced bureaucracy, the simplification of administrative procedures and the improvement of citizen–administration and citizen–service provider interactions. However, amidst all the good efforts, regional and local governments are still developing individualised digital solutions, tailored to the reality of each territory. Thus, interoperability of public services is many times lacking and duplication, waste of resources is an unfortunate by-product of public service digitalisation.  

(4) Digital connectivity is the driving force of the digital transformation. While the rollout of the fibre cables and 5G technology is accelerating in cities, unfortunately, some remote areas are still not benefitting from the promise of better connectivity. According to the JRC, urban areas exhibit the highest speed in broadband connection, revealing how the areas already most connected in terms of physical networks are also the most connected from the digital point of view (13). The 2023 Report on the state of Digital Decade emphasizes that investing in connectivity of rural and remote areas is key to ensuring equal access to digital opportunities, since more than half of rural households (55%) are still not served by any fixed very high-capacity network, 65.3% of populated rural areas are not covered by 5G; and 9% of rural households are not yet covered by any fixed network at all (14). Thus, the connectivity issue is in many ways the ”dark horse” of the digital transition efforts – current trends overshadow the promise that any remote territory can overcome many challenges by being more digital. However, a continuous funding and locally led initiatives may overturn the current course of the events. 

(5) In order to promote digital transformation and the scaling up of digital innovation, there is a clear need to know what works, what doesn’t and why. Unfortunately, still little can be said about digitalisation at the territorial level. Currently, only some standard statistical indicators are available at NUTS 2 level for comparative purposes, let alone the more nuanced indicators which shed light on digitalisation efforts. Under the umbrella of the LORDI initiative (Local and Regional Digital Indicators) which is steered by the CoR, ESPON, European Commission and other stakeholder networks, a first attempt has been made to identify new possible indicators and further showcase them through the LORDIMAS (Local Digital Maturity Assessment) which is a tool to measure digital maturity of municipalities, being developed under the Living in EU initiative.  As things stand, data collection efforts most likely will involve unconventional sources, use of big data, self-reported surveys, etc., while the data would still need to be harmonised for any European benchmarks. Nevertheless, to be able to make informed decisions, inevitably the data challenge will need to be addressed. For instance,  ESPON DIGISER (2022) project attempted a first effort of its kind at carrying out a survey of 250 European cities to gain insights on the key digitalisation indicators in public administrations.  

This TAP looks at the smart connectivity not only from purely digital perspective but also addresses the transport and passenger mobility where similarly challenges exist, albeit along two broad axis – access to places and services and access to adequate, innovative and efficient transport solutions, especially for less connected places, TEN-T catchment areas, rural areas and other peripheral territories. 

Stemming primarily from ESPON work on Inner Peripheries (PROFECY) and Regional Urbanisation (IMAGINE), there seems to be a gap in policy response to manage the effects of high-speed travel across European regions. Infrastructure that facilitates high-speed travel bypasses small and often medium-sized cities, towns and villages, connecting mainly metropolitan centres and other key urban nodes.  While European cities are becoming increasingly connected by faster and easier travel (rail and air), some enclaves of lower accessibility and reduced economic potential are being created.  

Remote areas are affected far more than other territories. Based on the work of the ESPON PROFECY project on inner peripheries, the latest JRC analysis still confirms that urban areas in the EU provide better opportunities in terms of accessibility to services compared to rural areas, as people have to travel larger distances to reach a service area or facility (15). The lack of transport infrastructure remains one of the main drivers of peripheralisation, especially in terms of facilitating access to urban centres and services of general interest. 

In addition, rural areas have a particularly dire challenge of ensuring transport accessibility. Many different experiences exist across Europe (16), but in many cases road and rail improvements are essential to improving connectivity and accessibility, either through improving services, or improving infrastructure. This also makes public transport and public transport providers crucial to the success of improving connectivity and accessibility. As concluded by the ESPON URRUC project, possible interventions to structurally improve mobility and support multimodality include: road or rail extension, intermodal parking facilities for bikes and cars, integrated multimodal ticketing and intermodal passenger transport. ESPON STISE further explored the Mobility as a Service (MaaS) concept – with a focus on passenger transport from the public authority’s perspective: defining the role public authorities have in this development, how can they operate and what the potential benefit is they can realise. 

In simple terms, “smart connectivity” in this TAP means a focus on digital transition of connectivity patterns and the use of digital and green solutions (“twin transition”) (17) to enhance transport and passenger mobility and accessibility.  The objective of this TAP is to link digitalisation and mobility, and to develop an evidence and knowledge base in understanding how digital transition can help dealing with territorial challenges and digital cohesion, especially related to low accessibility. This involves e.g. the prospect of  a better and smarter (greener) connectivity), improved digital skills and new ways how to organise public services across different levels of governance.  

In addition, through the observations for the entire ESPON Programme area, this TAP intends to provide analysis and policy guidance on how to improve transport and passenger mobility and accessibility in places which are outside of high-speed networks and fall into enclaves of lower accessibility and consequently potential reduced economic potential.  

This TAP theme is linked to the Cohesion Policy 2021 - 2027 objective of Smarter Europe by addressing an innovative, smart digital transformation as well as regional ICT connectivity. It links as well to the objective of More connected Europe by addressing the sustainable component of enhancing mobility and accessibility. This TAP theme is also linked to the Territorial Agenda 2030 theme of a Green Europe, by improving sustainable connections and supporting sustainable digital and physical connectivity of places. 

The digital transition is one of the key targets of the EU spanning across several policy fields, deeply rooted in the EU's Digital Decade (2021) initiative. At the EU level, the aim is to have open and efficient governments, interoperable digital public services for all citizens and businesses, and a modern infrastructure to support digital connectivity. Thus, the Digital Single Market remains a priority in the post-2020 multiannual financial framework and will continue to be supported by the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) in terms of digital infrastructure (CEF Digital) and also by the Digital Europe Programme. 

In 2020, the European Commission adopted “Sustainable and Smart Mobility Strategy”. Together with the European Green Deal, these initiatives have triggered multiple proposals in terms of promoting smarter mobility (for instance, via zero emission vehicles or automated multimodal mobility).  The proposal for the revised Trans-European Transport Network entails a multitude of improvements to further improve transport connectivity and accessibility, for instance, via improved rail connections and use of innovative technologies like 5G to further advance the digitalisation of transport infrastructure. Initiatives like the European Commission’s new European Urban Mobility Framework (2022) provides further guidance, for instance, for local action and offering cities a toolbox for sustainable mobility. 

This TAP shall be also future-looking and have a focus on the foresight element, in order not to arrive at obvious conclusions, given the vast efforts (funding and research wise) already dedicated to digital transition and mobility issues. In addition, this TAP shall not have a profound focus on innovation to support business development in terms of exploring such elements as “comparative advantage”, creating added value, etc. The innovation shall be explored more in the context of private sector offering appropriate digital (smart) solutions to public administrations.  

In terms of the expected results, this TAP shall respond to the challenges mentioned above and ensure new territorial evidence production and knowledge transfer based on this new evidence. More specifically, this TAP: 

• Includes methodological studies aimed at accessing new data and developing appropriate indicators in order to assess digitalisation, connectivity and mobility at territorial level - in terms of current state of affairs and development potentials. 
• Supports organisational change and scaling up of digital skills and paramount digital solutions (CEF building blocks, minimal interoperability mechanisms, standards), in order to support digital transition efforts of territories and improve mobility and accessibility. 
• Provides advice on how to improve access to basic public services for all citizens, especially for those in less connected areas via support in delivering digital solutions (e-government, e-health, e-energy and e-transport, etc.) and improved digital skills via vocational training, youth initiatives and other activities. 
• Strengthens capacities and digital skillsof policy makers in order develop appropriate digital strategies and improve solutions for smarter and more sustainable passenger and transport mobility 

The following strategic considerations shall be taken into account for this TAP theme.  In addition, where possible, its is important to consider the local and regional actors’ level, below NUTS3 and acknowledge that  in practical terms urban – rural divide is a simplification. Thus, from a research and policy perspective rather urban vs non-urban areas shall be considered which entails striving for balance in terms of what type of territories are being prioritized in this TAP.  

(I) Monitoring the progress of digital transition in all types of territories. There is a lack of data at NUTS 3 and lower territorial scales on digitalisation, digital maturity, etc.; thus - it is important to continue working on developing digital indicators and collecting appropriate data. The European Commission, the CoR and the ESPON Programme have developed the LORDI framework where the first shortlist of indicators (20 + indicators) will serve as a basis for developing a database and reporting tool that will provide an overview of the state of play of digital transformation in cities and municipalities (LORDIMAS). This TAP shall provide support to developing a fully functional LORDIMAS platform. It shall also provide opportunities to further develop digital indicators, taking, for instance, into account the LORDI framework (total list of 170 +potential indicators) and ensure first pan European data collection. 

(II) Monitoring physical accessibility trends across different types of territories. The European Commission and other international stakeholders have already developed methodological frameworks to assess accessibility in European regions by rail and road and also in cities (18). However, this TAP has a potential to investigate some more unexplored accessibility indicators, for instance, concerning accessibility by sea, etc. Accessibility in territories with geographic specificities is a particular problem, thus this TAP may provide opportunities for having a more nuanced accessibility analysis specifically for these types of territories (as a follow up of the ESPON BRIDGES project). This analysis shall be coupled with recommendations on how to use smart mobility solutions to overcome key development challenges.  

(III) Identify digital divides and provide policy recommendations on how to close the digital cohesion gap. The CoR has already done a lot of work on pointing out different digital divides and promoting the concept of “digital cohesion” (19). This TAP shall further provide support to this initiative via, firstly, consistently monitoring digital transition trends at the territorial level, and secondly, by exploring different factors which lead to digital divides. It is paramount to identify obstacles (legislative, skills deficit, digital infrastructure, funding, data privacy issues etc) hindering the uptake of digital transition/digital smart city solutions for territorial development, especially for regions lagging behind in digital transition, and facing sparse settlement and population shrinkage. In addition, digital divides are also related to potential negative impacts/side-effects of digitalisation, for instance, manifesting themselves in business-led ICT development rather than approaches guided by citizens’ needs. Thus, it is important to reflect not only on obstacles but also on the “ongoing” digital transition and how it affects digital divides. Here, it is also important to examine the territorial effects of applying Artificial Intelligence solutions (20).  

(IV) Strengthen ability of regional and local administrations to act on the digital transition.  E-governance, e-inclusion, utilisation of new/open data for governance, planning and monitoring depend on different maturity levels that the territorial public administrations exhibit in digital transition. In addition, better coordination efforts are needed between different levels of government and also with a strong participatory element from the private sector in order to make the solutions more modular, flexible, adaptive, breaking away from a one-provider model mentality which exists in many public sector administrations. Overall, more than half of the European municipalities are of less than 5000 inhabitants and, inevitably, they won’t have capacity to transform on their own. This TAP shall provide opportunities for learning, training and improving capacities of utilizing relevant digital solutions. 

(V) Improving security of transport and digital infrastructure. Transport and digital infrastructure heavily rely on digital solutions working seamlessly and without interruptions. However, in the age of cyberattacks and potential large-scale malfunctions, there is a real threat that some of the most essential public services may not be ensured, especially in territories with less capacities to respond. This TAP shall provide analysis on how to strengthen digital resilience in territories. 

(VI) Analysing and promoting smart solutions for mobility. This TAP shall focus on analysing how smart mobility solutions are applied in different types of territories, what can be learned and replicated elsewhere in order to improve mobility and accessibility. Preferably, this TAP shall reinforce the concept of “twin transition” where smart solutions are not only looked from digital-solution perspective, but also from green transition perspective, given the fact that, for instance, still most of Europeans prefer to use a car for daily mobility (21). This TAP shall not deal with planning and financing of physical transport infrastructure, the focus rather shall be on smart solutions as means for closing transport divides.  

(1) European Commission (2022). Regional and territorial accessibility indicators for passenger rail. See: https://op.europa.eu/en/publication-detail/-/publication/c33890a8-a4db-11ec-83e1-01aa75ed71a1/language-en/format-PDF/source-search. See interactive map: https://ec.europa.eu/regional_policy/information-sources/maps/rail-road-accessibility_en  

(2) European Commission (2019). Road transport performance. Introducing a new accessibility framework. See: https://ec.europa.eu/regional_policy/en/information/publications/working-papers/2019/road-transport-performance-in-europe. See interactive map: https://ec.europa.eu/regional_policy/information-sources/maps/rail-road-accessibility_en  

(3) European Commission (2023). How fast are rail trips between EU cities and is rail faster than air? See: https://ec.europa.eu/regional_policy/information-sources/publications/working-papers/2023/how-fast-are-rail-trips-between-eu-cities-and-is-rail-faster-than-air_en   

(4) European Commission (2022). Road infrastructure in Europe: Road length and its impact on road performance. See: https://ec.europa.eu/regional_policy/information-sources/publications/working-papers/2022/road-infrastructure-in-europe-road-length-and-its-impact-on-road-performance_en  

(5) Eurostat (2022). Digital economy and society statistics - households and individuals. https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php?title=Digital_economy_and_society_statistics_-_households_and_individuals  

(6) JRC (2022), New perspectives on territorial disparities. See : https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC126033 

(7) OECD (2022), OECD Regions and Cities at a Glance 2022, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/14108660-en.  

(8) Eurostat Regional Yearbook 2023: https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/products-flagship-publications/w/ks-ha...

(9) ESPAS Ideas Paper Series (2022). Digital Cohesion. See: https://espas.eu/files/ESPAS-Ideas-Paper-CoR-Digital-cohesion.pdf 

(10) European Committee of the Regions (2022). EU Annual Report on the State of Regions and Cities 2022. See: https://cor.europa.eu/en/our-work/Pages/State-of-Regions-and-Cities-2022.aspx  

(11) Jesús Crespo Cuaresma & Sebastian Uljas Lutz (2021) Modelling and projecting digital trends in European regions: an econometric framework, Regional Studies, 55:10-11, 1696-1710, DOI: 10.1080/00343404.2021.1976746 

(12) Eurostat’s Regions in Europe — 2023 interactive edition: https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/interactive-publications/regions-2023  

(13) JRC (2022), New perspectives on territorial disparities. See : https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC126033  

(14) European Commission (2023). Report on the state of the Digital Decade 2023 (https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/library/2023-report-state-digital-decade  ) 

(15) JRC (2022). Accessibility to services in Europe’s Member States – an evaluation by degree of urbanisation and remoteness. See: https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC124457  

(16) Vitale Brovarone, E., Cotella, G., & Staricco, L. (Eds.). (2021). Rural Accessibility in European Regions (1st ed.). Routledge. 

(17) European Commission (2022). 2022 Strategic Foresight Report. Twinning the green and digital transitions in the new geopolitical context. See: https://commission.europa.eu/strategy-and-policy/strategic-planning/strategic-foresight/2022-strategic-foresight-report_en  

(18) ITF (2019), "Benchmarking Accessibility in Cities: Measuring the Impact of Proximity and Transport Performance", International Transport Forum Policy Papers, No. 68, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/4b1f722b-en.  

(19) CoR (2022). Opinion of the European Committee of the Regions — Digital Cohesion. See: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A52022IR0195  

(20) Pellegrin, J, Colnot, L & Delponte, L (2021), Research for REGI Committee – Artificial Intelligence and Urban Development, European Parliament, Policy Department for Structural and Cohesion Policies, Brussels. See: https://www.europarl.europa.eu/thinktank/en/document/IPOL_STU(2021)690882  

(21) European Commission (2022). Study on New Mobility Patterns in Europe. See: https://transport.ec.europa.eu/news/new-mobility-patterns-study-insights-passenger-mobility-and-urban-logistics-2022-12-20_en