Legislation and policies and may often have unintended impacts at different spatial levels. The aim of territorial impact assessment (TIA) is to identify whether a policy, regulation or legislation has an asymmetric territorial impact. TIA can be implemented as either ex-ante or ex-post activity, however, it shall not be equalized with “impact evaluation” which primarily seeks to establish (explain) “why” certain impacts occur. TIA does not necessarily need to be about testing a hypothesis or drawing causal inferences by using a strict counterfactual framework. As the name “assessment” implies, it can be a more humble analysis, adjusted to existing realities. TIAs, in most cases, are meant to provide merely evidence on the territorial distribution of any impacts.

Conducting a territorial impact assessment should limit the risk of causing an unbalanced territorial or spatial distribution of costs and benefits for different types of territories.

ESPON has been engaged in the development and operationalisation of a quick and easy to use assessment method for territorial impacts. This has led to the introduction of the “ESPON TIA Quick Check” methodology. The methodological background behind the TIA Quick Check is the vulnerability concept developed by the IPCC. In general, this means a combination of the sensitivity of any given territorial entity (determined by socioeconomic indicators) with exposure to a particular policy or legislation (determined by experts).

The application of the methodology is embedded in a workshop setting, assisted by the ESPON TIA webtool in order to steer the expert discussion on territorial effects of policies and legislation, and ultimately produce TIA maps. 

Overall, the ESPON TIA methodology is well suited for TIAs which address European level legislation, or proposals at a larger regional scale (like macroregions, cross-border regions, etc.) since the analysis is essentially based on using NUTS 3 level statistical data stored in the ESPON TIA webtool. A simple leaflet on applying the ESPON TIA is available at the ESPON website.

In addition, the ESPON TIA is referenced in the European Commission’s Better Regulation Guidelines (“TOOL #34. Territorial impacts”.) as one of the tools which may be used for carrying out territorial impact assessments. It is considered as a reasonable alternative to more complex tools developed, for instance, by the Commission’s Joint Research Centre. 

Since 2015, more than 30 Territorial Impact Assessments have been carried out using as a basis the ESPON TIA methodology. The TIAs have looked into territorial impacts of thematically various EU directives/legislative proposals, for instance, on ship-generated waste, minimum quality requirements for reused water, clean and energy-efficient road vehicles, work-life balance, UK’s withdrawal from the EU, EU’s Territorial Cooperation post-2020, creation of EU Labour authority, etc. These TIAs have attracted various regional and local experts, as well as staff of the DG REGIO, DG ENV and DG MOVE.

The European Committee of the Regions (CoR) has been the main user of the ESPON TIA methodology so far. Numerous TIAs have been carried out over the last 10 years, and the results of analyses were presented in TIA reports featuring the mapped impacts and their territorial distribution at NUTS 3 level (based on the selected set of indicators), as well as conclusions and policy recommendations. These pieces of evidence were then used to draw up CoR’s Opinions.

If one considers the real impact (uptake of results) of these TIAs, several notable examples can be mentioned which demonstrate the use of produced evidence in the TIAs: 

• TIA results are referenced in an actual end text of an adopted EU Directive
• TIA results are referenced in the Proposals for EU Directives or Regulations
• TIA results are referenced in Commission Staff Working Documents
• TIA results are referenced in adopted Opinions of the European Committee of the Regions

The ESPON Programme has been a pioneer in advancing the understanding and analysis of “territorial impacts”, by developing TIA methodologies and inspiring European institutions to proactively seek for better ways on how to address territorial impacts of public (sectoral) policies. For instance, ESPON has responded to the early calls outlined in the European Spatial Development Perspective (1999), for examining territorial impact of investment policies, in particular of the large infrastructure projects.

Thus, by and large, there is a long history of establishing the groundwork for straightforward and practical insights and tools regarding Territorial Impact Assessment (TIA). This journey began with the ESPON 2006 Programme, which contained TIA studies related to diverse EU sector policies (Policy Impact Projects). Subsequently, ESPON initiated the ESPON Spatial Scenarios project with the aim of “standardising” different approaches, and it gave birth to the first comprehensive TIA methodology – ESPON TEQUILA 1. During the ESPON 2006 Programme the work on understanding policy impact and its relation to territorial cohesion was unprecedented, thus in academic circles some even referred to ESPON as the “European Territorial Cohesion Assessment Network”.

Building upon these experiences, the ESPON 2013 Programme furthered its commitment to TIA, by introducing the ESPON Territorial Impact Package for Transport and Agricultural Policies (ESPON TIPTAP) which essentially was a substantial upgrade of the ESPON TEQUILA model (ESPON TEQUILA 2). However, there were also calls for more simple and accessible approaches which could target “non-technical” audience. Thus, another strategic turn took place during the ESPON 2013 Programme. For instance, during the applied research project ESPON ARTS, a simple and user-friendly method was elaborated which by now is commonly known as “ESPON’s TIA Quick Check”. In parallel, another ESPON project (ESPON EATIA) developed an approach to support the EU member state level in the identification and evaluation of potential policy impacts of EU initiatives at national, regional and local levels. The approach is based on qualitative assessment and a set of tools (a guidance document was prepared).

The ESPON TIA Quick Check allowed to make a ‘quick’ ex-ante analysis of the potential impact of EU legislation, policies and directives on the development of regions. The ‘TIA quick check’ is based on the vulnerability concept in which the effects deriving from a particular policy measure (exposure) are combined with the characteristics of a region (territorial sensitivity), to produce potential territorial impacts. The ESPON ARTS methodology was also recommended in an early guidance of the European Commission on TIA. On top of that, ESPON prepared its own Handbook for policy makers for promotion purposes.

During the ESPON 2020 Programme the ESPON Quick Check method was uplifted to the status of being the principal method, and much effort was made to cement it as an effective instrument which can be used to perform TIA in a short period of time. It appealed to policy makers as a simple and straightforward method suitable even to non-specialists and producing immediate results. Consequently, the ESPON’s TIA web tool (https://tiatool.espon.eu), which supported the implementation of the ESPON Quick Check method, underwent major upgrades during the ESPON 2020 Programme in terms of an improved interface and functionalities for analysing indicators and producing TIA maps. 

During the ESPON 2030 Programme, the “ESPON TIA methodology” stands out as well-known brand; it is being referenced in the European Commission’s Better Regulation Guidelines (“TOOL #34. Territorial impacts”.) and is considered as a reasonable alternative to more complex tools provided, for instance, by the Joint Research Centre. Although mostly applied as an ex-ante tool for analysing territorial effects of draft legislation, the ESPON TIA methodology may also be used in an ex-post setting on various types of interventions, for instance, policies and funding programmes.