GEOSPECS: Inner Peripheries: a socio-economic territorial specificity

Territorial specificities are mostly described as geographic, i.e. sparsely populated, insular, border, and mountainous regions, and generally result in economic and social performance levels around or below European averages. However, other territorial specificities are also found in Europe, in which the socio-economic characteristics prevail above the geographic ones. These specificities include ‘areas affected by industrial transition', as mentioned in article 174 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union among ‘the regions concerned that should be paid particular attention'. Some countries and regions have identified these peripheral areas ‘out of the socio-economic loop' as ‘Inner Peripheries' (IP). No policy documents at European level address these explicitly, illustrating that the concept of IP as such is new in the European policy arena