Regional planning: Europe 2000 plus. Report

This Additional Opinion supplemented the main Opinion containing the Economic and Social Committee’s political message addressed to the Strasbourg Council meeting of 30 and 31 March 1995. The need for an EU spatial planning policy that respected certain principles and procedures, in the interests of efficacy and openness, was incontrovertible. The ESC considered that the European Spatial Development Perspective should be tailored to regional trends and potentialities, and should respect the regions’ geographical, socio-economic and cultural differences. Decisions should be coordinated at all levels (possibly by means of a code of conduct), with due respect for the subsidiarity principle. All the relevant players should work together in partnership, and account should be taken of the qualitative aspect of spatial development. While welcoming the setting-up of the CSD (Committee on Spatial Development), the ESC stressed that the CSD should cease to be an intergovernmental body and be made an advisory committee. The ESC reiterated its intention to be closely involved in the work of the CSD. The ESC called on the Commission to improve the coordination between the relevant Directorates-General, including the Directorate-General for Competition. Finally, the ESC considered that spatial planning policy should be accorded the political status it deserved and enshrined in the Treaty at the 1996 Intergovernmental Conference.