In spring 2003 NERP decided to formulate a project aiming at sending a project expert to the Coordination Unit (CU) of the European Spatial Planning Observation Network, (ESPON). The project carries two objectives. Firstly to assist the CU in administering the ESPON programme and secondly every sixth month to report back to NERP delivering digested information on new knowledge concerning European Spatial Development on matters of a special Nordic interest. The envisaged output will be four reports giving an impression of scientific and political development, which presently for the first time in a cohesive way is taking place within the enlarged EU-25 plus the two candidate countries of Bulgaria and Romania and the two neighbouring countries Norway and Switzerland. The first report was presented to NERP in spring 2004 and contained, apart from a short introduction to the background for the development of the European Spatial Development Perspective (ESDP) and of ESPON, a condensed presentation of the main findings of the 2nd. and 3rd. interim reports from the first sixteen ESPON projects. This second report will be presented to NERP in December 2004 and contains a condense presentation of some of the findings of the first final reports from eight projects and is based upon the summary of the final report from the coordinating and cross-thematic ESPON project 3.1. Furthermore this second report aims to highlight some specific Nordic features arising from the maps produced by the individual projects.