ABSTRACT
European spatial planning unleashing mutual learning seems more significant than whether or not there is a Community competence. Indeed, the ESDP has created a learning machine (Faludi 2008). In general, planners are fond of plans being implemented but the makers of the ESDP talked about its application rather than its implementation. I first explain this concept. Then I go into what the ESDP said about its application and what the Tampere Action Programme made of it. An important avenue for the application of the ESDP was, and still is, INTERREG. Its transnational strand started even before the ESDP process came to an end and has continued ever since, now mainstreamed as part of the third cohesion policy objective, European Territorial Cooperation. So the ESDP process did not end with publication of the document and learning was and still is an integral part of its application.
