Abstract
Territorial governance is an extremely heterogeneous activity. Each European country is characterised by a complex system of legal acts, tools, discourses and practices that had consolidated through time, as a consequence of peculiar path-dependent processes. At the same time, since more than 30 years the European Union is developing territorially relevant actions and interventions, ultimately aiming at achieving the economic, social and territorial cohesion of the continent. The mutual relations entangling domestic and supranational territorial governance remain unclear: on the one hand, the European Union is required to produce a framework for delivering its policies that is flexible enough to accommodate domestic differences; on the other hand, domestic territorial governance and spatial planning systems should adapt in order to allow room for cross-fertilization with supranational interventions. This contribution builds on the evidence collected by the research project ESPON COMPASS to frame and explore this issue. In doing so, it serves as an introduction for this special issue that, in the following contributions, presents a number of concrete examples of interaction between EU spatial policies and domestic territorial governance and spatial planning.
Highlights
Since the industrial revolution, raising urbanisation rates, increases in personal wealth and car ownership, higher expectations regarding housing quality and the movement of population away from agriculture towards the industrial and services sectors have increased development pressures dramatically
Processes and practices promoted at the European UnionGiancarlo Cotella (EU) level have triggered a complex mix of intended and unintended effects in national territorial governance and spatial planning systems
Domestic territorial governance and EU policies often proceed on parallel tracks, limiting synergy and cross-fertilization
Summary
Since the industrial revolution, raising urbanisation rates, increases in personal wealth and car ownership, higher expectations regarding housing quality and the movement of population away from agriculture towards the industrial and services sectors have increased development pressures dramatically The impact of these phenomena have been such that legislation has been introduced in each European country to empower public authorities to monitor and control territorial development and prepare plans, identifying what types of development will be permitted and where they would be most appropriate. Focusing on unfolding and fleshing out the above elements, this contribution serves as introduction to the present special issue, that explores the actual chances for cross-fertilization between domestic territorial governance and EU policies on the basis of a number of case studies. Section five guides the reader through the contributions that compose this special issue, in an overall reflection on the actual chances for cross-fertilization between the EU and the member states in the field of territorial governance
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