Abstract
The European Spatial Development Perspective (ESDP) is the product of a north‐west European planning tradition. This article discusses the role of north‐west European concerns, in particular the use of the concept of polycentricity, in the making of the ESDP, and the application of the ESDP in the North‐west European Metropolitan Area (NWMA), more in particular in Germany, the UK, The Netherlands and Belgium. The article also explores the future of spatial planning as regards north‐west Europe. Much will depend on how Community policy will adapt to the enlargement of the European Union. However, it seems certain that existing member states, in particular those in north‐west Europe will see their share in the structural funds evaporate. This may give added significance to INTERREG IIIB respectively to the successor of this Community Initiative. In addition, concepts like territorial cohesion and territorial management may become functional equivalents to that of spatial planning, for which the Community is said to have no competence.
Notes
Andreas Faludi, Nijmegen School of Management, University of Nijmegen, The Netherlands. E‐mail: [email protected]
Based on research done jointly with Drs B. Waterhout of the University of Nijmegen in the context of EURBANET, a project in the framework of the Community Initiative INTERREG IIC for the NWMA. The lead partner was the research institute OTB from Delft University of Technology.
The Fifth Report has never been formally approved and is in the process of being absorbed into a new‐style policy document, due to be released in 2004.