Territories with specific geographical features

The objective of this paper is to provide an updated analysis of the economic and social situation of the territories with specific geographical features and their evolution in recent years in order to identify possible systematic trends that characterise various types of territories. In particular, the paper highlights the performance of such territories compared to other EU regions. It also analyses how such performance varies within one particular type of territory from one region to the other.This analysis confirms the picture of a European scene with diverseprocesses and situations. Such diversity exists not only betweendifferent categories of regions but also inside them. This paperintends to foster a broader reflection on territories with specificgeographical features and to complement analyses such as theone conducted under the ESPON Programme (e.g. ESPON AppliedResearch Project 2013/1/12, European Perspective on SpecificTypes of Territories) which seeks to identify the developmentopportunities of specific types of regions.