Oldřich Vlasak, the CoR rapporteur on territorial vision 2050 met with Iskra Mihaylova MEP, the Chair of the European Parliament's Committee on Regional Development to discuss a new territorial vision to help guide EU policies and funds after 2020. The programming period, which sets the annual budgets for 7 year periods outlining the areas and amount that money will be allocated to, currently runs till the year 2020. The EU will need to decide on its policy aims and the funding due to be allocated to these aims.

Despite the EUs Cohesion Policy 2014-2020 aiming to reduce disparities between Europe's regions, strengthening economic, social and territorial cohesion, studies have found that the economic divide between regions has not gotten better. The 6th EU Cohesion Report states that "regional disparities have widened during the last few years because the economic crisis has affected regions differently."

Commenting on the need for a territorial vision, Oldřich Vlasák said "we need a new territorial vision that brings the 1999 European Spatial Development Perspective Agreement up to date. Despite one third of the EU budget being spent on trying to reduce disparities between Europe's regions, disparities between our regions has widened during the last few years. Globalisation has had a varied impact on our cities and regions.

While some have thrived, others have struggled. We need a new strategy to help guide the post-2020 policies and spending. We need a place-based bottom-up approach would help us to correctly identify the challenges and most appropriate public policy tools to address them."