The European Union as an Ethical Community and What This Means for Spatial Planning

Abstract

The European Union has adopted in its official publications a number of ethical values which can be identified and made explicit: they are values which concern the material content of policies and values of human rights. Although the relationship between those values and practice is not always direct, it can legitimately be expected that the values influence the content of the EU's spatial policy. With the extension of the EU policy to include territorial cohesion, the core values have been given an explicitly spatial dimension. Nor can the member states ignore those values, because formal legislation of the EU works through into the practice of those states: that increases the significance of EU values for the spatial planning of the member states. For those reasons, planners should know what those values are and how they can influence spatial planning.

Acknowledgements

Thanks are due to Jurriën Thijssen for help with this research and to Stefanie Dühr for valuable comments on a draft of this article. The anonymous referees are also thanked for their helpful comments and suggestions.

Notes

1. From the national newspapers it would appear that the citizens of the member states view the advantages of their membership of the EU in terms of the economic benefits it brings: is this “the soul” of the EU?

2. Principles are not values, but the formulation of a value in terms of a general statement expressing a rule of conduct (Hoekveld & Needham, 2013).

3. Using the definition given above, democracy is not a value but a political system, implying values like participation, freedom and equality. Similarly, free collective negotiations is not a value but a relational system. And a market economy is not a value but an economic system.

4. See Dühr et al. (2010, p. 26 et seq).

5. A good and explicit example is the concept of integrated urban development, introduced in 2009. Recognizing the complexity of urban problems, the EU acknowledges the necessity of cross-sectoral, holistic solutions. “Integrated urban development seeks to coordinate the different sectoral policies that have an impact on cities and city-dwellers. Strong local involvement and public participation in the design and implementation of cross-sectoral projects and programmes are therefore essential” (CEC, 2009, p. 54).

6. The concept of territorial cohesion had already been introduced—but not adopted—in the Amsterdam Treaty of 1997 (EUR-Lex, 1997).

7. Böhme et al. (2004) say that the value of spatial justice lies behind all spatial policies of the EU. However, we think that those policies incorporate other values too, such as economic welfare and biodiversity (non-material well-being).

8. Now, the EU may act, even if the policy area does not fall within its exclusive competence, as long as the objective could be better achieved by the EU than by the national actions (EUR-Lex, 2008).

9. These are to be applied to all kinds of impact assessment, not only territorial but also environmental (environmental impact assessment and strategic environmental assessment).

10. According to the newest Lisbon Treaty (article 3b, 4) “Under the principle of proportionality, the content and form of Union action shall not exceed what is necessary to achieve the objective of the Treaties”.