Implementation: How does ESPON work?

How is ESPON governed?

All 27 EU member states and 4 partner states (Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland) participate in ESPON programme and co-finance it. 

As every EU funded programme, ESPON is managed by a Managing Authority, which is the Ministry of Housing and Spatial Planning of Luxembourg.

Monitoring Committee

The monitoring committee (MC) is the central decision-making body for the programme and its overall task is to ensure the quality and effectiveness of the programme's implementation.

It is composed of:

Members with voting rights:

• the 27 Member States of the European Union;
• 4 Partner States (Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland).

Observers without voting rights:

• The European Commission;
• The European Economic and Social Committee;
• The Committee of the Regions;
• 5 candidate countries (Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Ukraine, Serbia and Moldova).

Click here to access the list of the Monitoring Committee members.

Click here (Pdf, 230 Ko) to access the Rules of Procedure for the Monitoring Committee.

The decision notes of the ESPON Monitoring Committee meetings are available here:

Reporting to the European Commission: Programme data on the implementation

ESPON 2030 key results

Managing Authority

The designated Managing Authority is the Ministry of Housing and Spatial Planning, Department of Spatial Planning, Luxembourg. It is responsible for the efficient management and implementation of the Programme on behalf of the Monitoring Committee.

ESPON EGTC

As Single Beneficiary, the ESPON EGTC implements the Single Operation covering the core activities of the ESPON 2030 programme. Visit www.espon.eu for more information.

ESPON Contact Points

The ESPON contact points constitute a European wide network of national organisations supporting ESPON at national level and disseminating its activities in local languages.

Visit https://www.espon.eu/espon-in-your-country for more information.