The purpose of the paper is to summarize global benchmarks and challenges of spatial development in the conditions of European integration of Ukraine and the development of a network economy. By analyzing, systematizing and generalizing the scientific works of many scholars, the evolution of the concept of «economic space» was explored and its features revealed at various stages of economic development. In the course of the study, it was discovered that the expansion of globalization processes, breakthrough technological shifts, gradual rooting of the principles of sustainable development and network models of production organization are significantly influenced by the formation of economic space in modern conditions. The main points of growth for countries are cities, which concentrate an increasing proportion of the population, resources and technologies. Traditional economic and geographical factors of ensuring the competitiveness of regions (natural, energy, labor resources) gradually lose their significance for spatial development. At the same time, the importance of «soft» competitive advantages of regional economies, which are aimed at creating favorable conditions for the inflow and effective use in the regional economy of modern resources inherent in post-industrial economic models, is increasing. In Ukraine, one of the key tools for providing inclusive spatial development of separate territories is their road transport accessibility, which helps to fill territories with a certain type of functional activity and to achieve the synergy effect at a certain level of concentration of resources and formation of territorial communities. The separation of intelligent specializations in the region will help unblock its potential for technological and structural changes, as well as industrial modernization on an innovative basis, using the existing knowledge base for the formation of new branches of the economy or new vectors of regional specialization based on knowledge.