ABSTRACT
From the very beginnings of the European Coal and Steel Community (Chapter 7) the EU has been driven by dynamics of economic integration and market liberalisation, first through a customs union, later through a common market finally leading to an economic and monetary union. EU macroeconomic and competition policies have had a major influence on economic activity, trade, investment flows and human mobility in Europe, and thus on the economic geography of the continent. Although this influence was acknowledged in the European Spatial Development Perspective (CSD 1999), the territorial impacts and spatial planning implications of these policies remain largely unaddressed in the literature on European spatial planning and spatial development. The broad label of EU economic and competition policies encompasses competition, internal market and services, taxation and customs union, economic and financial affairs, enterprise and industry and external trade. EU economic and competition policies have territorial and spatial impacts in two distinct ways (van Ravesteyn and Evers 2004):
• They directly affect the functioning of markets, the behaviour of economic players (firms and consumers), the location decisions of businesses and individuals, flows of capital, labour, goods and ideas, and consequently influence the geography of investment, economic activity and migrations.
