Abstract
The impact of European policies strongly depends on their interpretation and application by domestic actors. This is especially true in fields such as European spatial planning and development, which are characterised by informal agreements and fragmented competences. Consequently, EU policies only gain importance if domestic actors consider them relevant and establish links to their respective areas of influence. The European Spatial Development Perspective (ESDP) is often regarded as a success story in European spatial planning and is relatively well known among planners across Europe. The Territorial Agenda documents, often considered successors to the ESDP, have not been met with the same enthusiasm and interest. This contribution uses the concept of storytelling to explain why the ESDP was at least partly successful in appealing to planners. Moreover, it discusses the role and importance of planning education in fostering interest in European spatial development.
Highlights
The European Spatial Development Perspective (ESDP), agreed upon by the Ministers of the member states of the European Union responsible for Spatial Planning in 1999, has received considerable attention among planning researchers
The European Union has no competence for land use planning, yet it shares responsibilities for several policies with spatial implications with the member states, including regional and Cohesion Policy, transport policy and environmental policy
Twenty years after its publication, the aims and policy options presented in the ESDP still inspire planning activities in various countries (Nadin et al, 2018, p.48)
Summary
The European Spatial Development Perspective (ESDP), agreed upon by the Ministers of the member states of the European Union responsible for Spatial Planning in 1999, has received considerable attention among planning researchers (see Faludi and Waterhout, 2002; Davoudi, 2003; Faludi, 2004a). Depending on the actions of national, regional and local actors, European discourses can be used to shape, inform and support their arguments and planning decisions (Shaw and Sykes, 2005), or they can be subconsciously forgotten or consciously ignored This leads to considerable variation in responses to European planning stories across Europe and within countries, which can only be fully understood from within, i.e. in specific local, regional and national contexts (Purkarthofer, 2018b). The following section elaborates on the factors contributing to the enticement of the ESDP
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