ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the status and importance of European spatial planning. It presents the evolution of spatial planning in Europe as a distinct policy at the European tier of planning and decision-making, and explores a possible future of European spatial development as a means to achieve territorial cohesion across the continent. The chapter addresses the difficult relationship of spatial planning, regional economic development and ecologically defined sustainable development in this wider European context. It presents the virtues of spatial planning to bridge the Lisbon and Gothenburg goals of territorial development in Europe. Regional planning as well as spatial planning aims at integrating and coordinating all space-consuming activities in a territory. Despite all criticism and shortcomings, the European Spatial Development Perspective (ESDP), approved in 1999 in Potsdam by the member states of the European Union has become an important policy document for spatial development in Europe.
