This is report no. 3 about the ESPON 2006 programme to the Nordic Council of Minister, NERP from the project expert, seconded to the ESPON Coordination Unit in Luxembourg. More information about the European Spatial Planning Observatory Network (ESPON) programme 2000-2006 can be found in report no. 1 and 2, which can be downloaded from the homepage of the Nordic Council of Minister. Interested readers are therefore kindly referred to seek more information in these two publications. See below. The first report was presented to NERP in spring 2004 and the second report was presented in December 2004. This third report will be presented to NERP shortly after the EU Ministers responsible for regional policy and spatial development have conve-ned at the informal minister meeting in Luxembourg in May 2005, at which a further step in support of a continuation of the ESPON pro-gramme within the new Structural Fund programme 2007-2013 is expected to be taken. This third report is to a large extent based upon the content of the latest ESPON report, the Spring 2005 Report "In search of territorial potentials", which is to be published in May 2005.