European Spatial Planning and Territorial Cooperation

There is a strong international dimension to spatial planning. European integration strengthens interconnections, development and decision-making across national and regional borders. EU policies in areas such as environment, transport, agriculture or regional policy have far-reaching effects on spatial development patterns and planning procedures.
Planners in the EU are now routinely engaged in cooperation across national borders to share and devise effective ways of intervening in the way our cities, towns and rural areas develop. In short, the EU has become an important framework for planning practice, research and teaching. Spatial planning in Europe is being ‘Europeanized’, with corresponding changes for the role of planners.

Written for students, academics, practitioners and researchers of spatial planning and related disciplines, this book is essential reading for everybody interested in engaging with the European dimension of spatial planning and territorial governance. It explores:


spatial development trends and their influence on planning
the nature, institutions and actors of the European Union from a planning perspective
the history of spatial planning at the transnational scale
the planning tools, perspectives, visions and programmes supporting European cooperation on spatial planning
the territorial impacts of the Community’s sector policies
the outcomes of European spatial planning in practice.

Stefanie Dühr is Associate Professor in the Department of Spatial Planning, Nijmegen School of Management, Radboud University Nijmegen. She holds a PhD in spatial planning from the University of the West of England, Bristol, and a geography degree from the University of Trier. Her main research interests are comparative planning systems, cartographic representations in spatial planning, and European territorial cooperation. She is the author of The Visual Language of Spatial Planning, and editor of the policy debates section of the journal Regional Studies.

Claire Colomb is Lecturer in Urban Sociology and European Spatial Planning at the Bartlett School of Planning, University College London. She holds a degree in politics and sociology from the Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Paris and a PhD in planning from University College London, and previously worked for the European transnational cooperation programme INTERREG IIIB. Her research interests include comparative urban governance, planning and urban policies in European cities, urban sociology, and European territorial cooperation.

Vincent Nadin is Professor of Spatial Planning and Strategy in the Department of Urbanism, Faculty of Architecture, Delft University of Technology. He is a visiting researcher at Leibniz University, Hannover. His main research interest is comparative planning systems. He is joint author of Town and Country Planning in the UK, and editor of the journal Planning Practice and Research.

Part 1: Introducing The European Dimension of Spatial Planning 1. Introducing the European Union as a Planning Subject 2. Arguing for and against European Spatial Planning 3. The Language Challenge and Terminology Part 2: The Spatial Development Context for European Spatial Planning 4. Spatial Development Trends in Europe and the Key Issues for Spatial Planning 5. Understanding and Representing European Space 6. Spatial Data and Spatial Information Part 3: The Institutional Framework for European Union Spatial Policy Making 7. European Integration and the European Union as a Political System 8. Theoretical Approaches to EU Governance and Policy-Making 9. The institutions of the European Union 10. Non-EU Actors, Organisations and Networks 11. Decision-Making and Policy-Making Processes in the European Union 12. Widening, Deepening and Broadening the EU: Past Experiences and Future Prospects Part 4: The European Spatial Planning Agenda 13. A Model of European Spatial Planning? 14. The Emergence of the European Spatial Planning Agenda 15. The Instruments of European Spatial Planning: Spatial Strategies, Spatial Visions and the Quest for Spatial Coordination 16. The Instruments of European Spatial Planning: Transboundary Territorial Cooperation Programmes and Projects Part 5: EU Spatial Policy: Sectoral Policies and their Territorial Effects 17. EU Economic and Competition Policies 18. EU Cohesion Policy, Regional Development and Disparities 19. EU Transport Policy 20. EU Agriculture and Rural Development Policy 21. EU Environmental Policy and Sustainability Part 6: Towards New Forms ofTerritorial Governance? 22. The Relevance of European Transboundary Cooperation for Spatial Planning 23. The Europeanisation of Domestic Planning Systems 24. Planning Cultures, Professions and Education in the EU 25. Looking Back and Looking Forward: A Critical Reflection on European Spatial Planning as Practice and as a Field of Research