Cross-border accessibility and spatial development in Portugal and Spain

Cross-border Regional development is one of the EU current major concerns. These regions are usually less dynamic socio-economically and tend to be peripheral areas in each country. Some of these regions have recently benefited from new roads, which have mainly been funded through the European financial program of Transnational Transport Networks, TEN-T. Almost twenty years after implementation started and after initial observations on the impacts, some development problems are unexpectedly getting worse. Using socioeconomic data from the Portugal/Spain cross-border area a model able to measure the relation between accessibility and development in this region is being calibrated. This paper is an initial study on the calibration process for some Portuguese municipalities in the border area for the period 1991-2001. This initial study also prepares the setting for a more complete study covering both sides of the border, therefore including some Spanish data