Service of General Interest in the Rhenish Coal-Mining Area in Context of Structural Change

Territorial cohesion is of main interest in the EU and its member state Germany. It should lead to a reduction of disparities between different stats of development and is closely related to the accessibility to Service of General (SGI) in different areas. The investigated area in this article is characterized by the end of coal fired power generation by the Coal-Phase-out act. In this article the accessibility to SGI is discussed. Additionally, the accessibility to specific SGI is investigated with a special view to the southern rural parts of the Rhenish coal-mining area. It is outlined that the provision to SGIs is high near to agglomerations and decreases in rural parts. This can also be observed for broadband expansion, while the access to internet allows a higher accessibility to SGIs for different analysed indicators. This research is used to establish a regional development strategy to maintain equal living conditions for the entire region.