Application and effects of the ESDP in Member States

Abstract

Between 2004 and 2006 IRPUD participated in two projects of the European Spatial Planning Observation Network, in short ESPON. Both projects fall into the policy impact studies of ESPON, trying to understand and identify the various effects of territorial policies implemented by the EU and its various bodies. The ESPON project 2.3.1 ??Application and Effects of the ESDP in Member States?? focused on the European Spatial Development Perspective and tried to analyse, which effects this bottom-up policy document finally generated when looking towards the planning systems of member states (and beyond). The ESPON project 2.3.2 Governance of Territorial and Urban Policies from the EU to Local Level on the one hand can be understood as a follow up of the mid-90ies Compendium of EU Planning Systems. On other hand, the study clearly goes beyond the earlier compendium trying to establish a deeper understanding of urban and territorial policies in Europe, not least surveying 29 states. IRPUD contributed to both projects various elements but in particular quantitative approaches towards the analysis. What needs to be stressed here is, that the quantitative approach in both cases constitutes only a very first attempt. Both policy fields are very complex analytical entities which do not lend easily for a quantitative indicator based survey. The results rather have to be seen as preliminary, raising many more questions than providing ready made answers. The reports presented here are excerpts of the final reports produced for ESPON. The complete versions can be found at www.espon.eu . The team for both projects (with varying responsibilities) consisted of Prof. Dr. Peter Ache, Alexandra Hill, Michael Höweler, Christian Lindner and Stefan Peters.