Spatial planning traditions in Europe: their role in the ESDP process1

Making and applying the European Spatial Development Perspective (ESDP) is an example of ‘Europeanization’. Europeanization is the outcome of the interaction between actors with various motivations. In the case of the ESDP process, these motivations reflect the spatial planning traditions and the institutional set‐ups of the relevant actors. As a preliminary, the paper describes the ESDP. It then analyses the motivations, reflecting as they do their spatial planning traditions and institutional set‐ups, of four key actors without whom the ESDP would not have been what it is: France, the Netherlands, Germany and the European Commission. The paper ends with a discussion of the prospects of European spatial planning after enlargement.