ABSTRACT
The above reflects Klaus Kunzmann’s critical assessment as somebody who, having been actively involved in European planning, to the present day reminds us of its pitfalls and shortcomings. This statement came after preparatory work on the so-called Torremolinos Charter had been completed and before its adoption. Torremolinos Charter is the name commonly given to the ‘Regional/Spatial Planning Charter’ adopted at Torremolinos by the European Conference of Ministers responsible for Regional Planning, better known as CEMAT for Conférence Européenne des Ministres responsable à l’Aménagement du Territoire. The framework was that of the Council of Europe and not the EC and the date was May 1983. This Charter, a crisp statement of principles, is the first European planning document agreed by ministers. It was preceded by a more elaborate report of a ‘Working Party on Regional Planning’ followed by studies and reports published by the Council of Europe on behalf of CEMAT. The Charter is a statement presaging much of what has been said and done since in terms of a European planning programme. This chapter has five sections. The first introduces the Working Party. The second summarises the first chapter of its report identifying the problem of ‘regional’ planning. I put regional in inverted commas because the concept will be shown to be ambiguous. The third section is about the European dimension of ‘regional’ planning. The next one is about the Torremolinos Charter in which the work of the Working Party and the subsequent research and deliberations crystallised. In the last section I relate Klaus Kunzmann’s assessment at a time when everybody anticipated a follow-up to the Charter in the form of a ‘European Spatial Planning Concept’,
sometimes also named a ‘European Spatial Planning Strategy’. Under ‘Outlook’ I briefly describe the role of CEMAT since.
