Making Sense of the ‘Territorial Agenda of the European Union’

Abstract

European planning has gone through a number of metamorphoses from the European Spatial Development Perspective (ESDP) to an, albeit tentative, policy to achieve territorial cohesion. The first section of this paper discusses developments since the turn of the century. The second section focuses on the renewed Member State initiative to produce an ‘evidence-based’ document, ‘The Territorial State and Perspectives of the European Union’, leading to the ‘Territorial Agenda of the European Union’ presented in May 2007 under the German Presidency. The third section discusses the substantive policies as proposed in the Territorial Agenda. The forth section focuses on institutional developments, including acceptance on the part of the Member States of the need for an EU territorial cohesion policy, and with it of the role of the Commission in the taking of important initiatives. The conclusions seek to make sense of these developments in the evolving context of European integration. A postscript discusses the prospects for territorial cohesion policy under the ‘Reform Treaty’.