Spain Following in the EU’s Footsteps: The Europeanization of Spatial Planning in its Autonomous Communities

ABSTRACT

Recent years have seen the emergence of the European dimension to the territorial planning conducted at lower scales, in a process described as the ‘Europeanization’ of spatial planning. Given that, to date, this phenomenon has received little attention as it affects Spain, this article seeks to analyse the impact of Europeanization on Spanish spatial planning, focused on an examination of its regional territorial plans. The results show that Spain has been no exception in the application of these European directives but, at the same time, its unique administrative organization means that the process of Europeanization remains slow and heterogeneous in its application.

KEYWORDS:

• Europeanization
• spatial planning
• Spain
• Autonomous Communities
• regional territorial plans