From Cohesion to Territorial Policy Integration (TPI): Exploring the Governance Challenges in the European Union

Abstract

The European Union (EU) is searching for new approaches to manage problems that span different policy sectors. In the regional policy field, incompatibilities between the EU's territorial development objectives and its transport, agricultural, competition and environmental policies, are well known. The need to integrate territorial policy concerns into these sectoral policies (territorial policy integration or “TPI”) has recently emerged as a key policy priority. This article examines the EU's capacity to implement TPI. It does so in relation to two member states (Germany and the Netherlands) and the European Commission. It finds that the administrative implications of implementing TPI are far more demanding than any of these actors are currently able to handle. Moreover, some EU-level networks are potentially relevant to TPI, but these are mostly focused on regional policy matters (i.e. they are relatively inward looking). If these administrative issues are not taken more seriously, “integration” will struggle to make headway in an EU which is notoriously sectorized.

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Professor Andreas Faludi (OTB Research Institute, NL-Delft) and two anonymous referees for their extremely useful comments on an earlier draft of this article. They would also like to thank Bas Waterhout (OTB Research Institute, NL-Delft) for his assistance on the project upon which this article is based.

Notes

1. TPI overlaps with “territorial cohesion” but is more specific. “Territorial cohesion” concerns cooperation more broadly (between regions, between levels of administration and between sectors) (see: Robert, 2005).

2. On the “newness” of new modes, see Trubeck and Trubeck (2005).

3. The EU's macro strategy for economic growth and jobs, which was re-launched in 2004 (CEC, 2005a).

4. See: http://ec.europa.eu/regional_policy/index_en.htm

5. The national systems of the Netherlands and Germany are discussed in Schout et al. (2006). What is relevant is that these systems are disconnected from EU policies. Similarly, national IA systems are not linked to the national discussions on new EU policies.

6. Motie van het lid Meindertsma c.s., voorgesteld 21 maart 2005, Eerste Kamer, vergaderjaar 2004–2005, XXI-A.