The open method of co‐ordination and ‘post‐regulatory’ territorial cohesion policy

The Open Method of Co‐ordination (OMC) is being promoted as an alternative in policy areas where the Community method does not apply, such as in employment, social security and pensions. The paper discusses the origins of OMC and the thinking behind it. Then it explores OMC features of the process of making the European Spatial Development Perspective (ESDP). The work of the European Spatial Planning Observation Network (ESPON) on indicators facilitates OMC being invoked. Indicators need to be supplemented with mutual exchanges about national and European planning and also by joint work on transnational and European spatial visions. Assuming that, as proposed in Art. 3 of the European Constitution, territorial cohesion will become an accepted goal of the Union, on a par with economic and social cohesion, the paper ends with a scenario of the application of OMC in formulating European Union Territorial Cohesion Strategy.