ESPON seeks experiences on local and regional responses to COVID-19
The COVID-19 pandemic will have huge impacts on society, but the impacts on regions and cities will differ greatly. Depending on the local capacities of healthcare systems, the resilience of local public services and the types of local initiatives, impacts will be mitigated to a varying extent. National governments and European institutions are taking the lead to find answers to this crisis, but regional and local authorities are also putting emergency mechanisms in place and adapt their services to better support citizens and businesses.
ESPON is interested in gathering information on local experiences and regional policy responses to be shared with all European regions. ESPON are seeking best practices, local/regional initiatives, adaptations to public services, and anything else that could help to monitor the territorial impact of the COVID-19 crisis and design better responses for the future.
Examples of what ESPON are looking for include:
- How regions/cities adapt services/policies towards people over 65
- How do they use/ adjust digital public services to address the situation
- How is the situation impacting the relations with neighboring regions (especially in border areas)
- What kind of specific responses have been developed for the population in rural/remote areas
- What kind of specific local support is provided to SMEs (beyond national financial support)
If you know any of these best practices, please get in touch with ESPON. You can send a short description (400-600 words) by email to nikos.lampropoulos@espon.eu.
For further information, please see here.
