Claude Turmes is Minister for Energy and Spatial Planning of Luxembourg. He is leading the country’s energy policy with the aim of accelerating the energy transition, strengthening territorial resilience and reducing national dependency. Former MEP, he is a recognized expert on energy. He recently stressed the importance of establishing Green Recovery Investment Plans: "By reinventing the European Union's industrial base in the field of solar and wind energy we can not only contribute to a sustainable recovery and accelerate the energy transition, but also strengthen our resilience and independence from countries such as China or Russia and from fossil fuel imports". As Minister for Spatial Planning, he also ensures the coordination of cross-border and international sectoral policies on behalf of Luxembourg (including the Managing Authority of the ESPON 2020 Cooperation Programme).
In this context, he recalls in his message the importance of some recent ESPON research findings:
ESPON ACTAREA project helped us to structure our cross-border metropolitan area and COVID19 had shown how important it is to keep open our borders
ESPON GRETA project has been a forerunner to describe how to integrate biodiversity and climate challenges into spatial planning policies
ESPON MSP-LSI study has brought together very valuable concepts in order to include off-shore winds in the North and Baltic seas that are now widely implemented