Blue Banana

Initially, French geographer Roger Brunet, as the leader of RECLUS (Network for the study of changes in locations and spatial units), described the area as 'the European Backbone', which depicted an urban corridor extending from Liverpool to Milan.

[3] Characterized by significant industrialization and urbanization, this area has attracted numerous public and private enterprises since the early post-war period, prompting researchers and academics to investigate the factors behind its remarkable development within Europe.

[3] The name "Blue Banana" was dually coined by Jacques Chérèque [fr], and an artist adding a graphic to an article by Josette Alia in Le Nouvel Observateur.

[10] There are also considerations for an economically strong European pentagon with its borders Paris, London, Hamburg, Munich and Milan, with development axes towards the east (Berlin, Prague, Trieste).

Other research by Capoani et al. (2023)[13] examines the role of the UK and Northern Italy as peripheral regions within the Blue Banana, traditionally considered the economic core of Europe.

While urbanisation and infrastructure metrics indicate continued integration into Europe's core, weaker economic performance in Northern Italy and the impacts of Brexit on the UK present significant challenges to the cohesion of the Blue Banana.