Portugal 2020: an effective policy platform to promote sustainable territorial development?

This paper explores the implementation of European Union (EU) Cohesion Policy in Portugal during the 2014–2020 programming period (Portugal 2020) and its contribution to promoting sustainable territorial development. It starts with an anatomization of the dominant analytic dimensions of the concept of sustainable territorial development. It then examines the approved projects under Portugal 2020 and relates them to the selected five dimensions of territorial sustainable development, which include a circular economy, social environmental awareness, environmental conservation, a global governance sustainability focus, and a global spatial planning sustainability focus. The conclusions are that the Portugal 2020 goals of supporting sustainable territorial development have been, until late 2019, achieved beyond initial expectations in terms of relative allocated funding, and that the renewable energy and circular economy components have not been sufficiently explored, vis-à-vis the sustainable development needs of the country