Territorial cohesion: an unidentified political objective: Introduction to the special issue

The Constitutional Treaty, now up for ratification, identifies territorial cohesion as one of the goals of the European Union and lists it among the competences shared between the Union and the Member States. While leaving many questions unanswered, the delivery instruments for territorial cohesion policy not being the least important, the Third Cohesion Report of 17 February 2004 also refers to territorial cohesion. This special issue is seeking to cast light on this concept and in particular whether it forms a suitable umbrella for a follow up to the European Spatial Development Perspective. This introduction describes European territorial cohesion policy and discusses its delivery mechanisms. Finally, it introduces the papers of this special issue.