Mediterranean regionalism from territory to trains: spatial politics and planning of macro-regions and transport networks in Spain

Abstract

The contested planning of European macro-regions and Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T) exemplifies the complexities of spatial politics, territorial and relational. What stratagems – discursive and cartographic – may regional actors employ in the process, and what can we learn from them? In context of European Union integration policies, we explore Spanish regional politics – discursive and cartographic – surrounding planning of cross-border regions and a TEN-T “Mediterranean Corridor” (and its alternatives). The contested remapping of macro-regions and transport networks reveals the role of spatial planning in the vertebració (structuration in Catalan) of European territory in distinct ways, as Mediterranean regionalism shifts from territoriality to trains.

Keywords:

• regionalism
• territoriality
• transport networks
• spatial planning
• Mediterranean

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. Although for political reasons the Aragón government left the Euroregion in 2006.

2. The debate continues. A subsequent change of administrations in Spain to the conservative Partido Popular in November 2011 resurrected efforts by centralists to cast doubt on funding for the Mediterranean Corridor and advocate for the difficult and costly Central Pyrenean Crossing, defended by Spain alone among European governments in March 2012. However, in May 2013 the Core Network was formalized as “the backbone to boost growth and competitiveness in Europe's Single Market” (EC, 2013c) with the Mediterranean Corridor.