The Europeanisation of territorial governance and spatial planning: a tool for analysis

The Europeanisation of territorial governance and spatial planning (TG&SP) concerns both the possible influence of the European Union (EU) on national TG&SP systems and the contextual shaping of wider European territorial governance. This contribution presents the framework adopted by the COMPASS project to understand and analyse the Europeanisation of TG&SP in the 32 countries composing the ESPON space. Section ii) proposes a model that conceptualises TG&SP systems as complex institutional technologies subject to socio-economic, cultural and political changes and embedded within a wider EU territorial governance framework. Section iii) presents in more detail the three types of top-down influences (structural, instrumental and discursive top-down) identifiable through the model, whereas section iv) describes the types of bottom-up influences (discursive bottom-up and practical) and a horizontal influence. Section v) rounds off the contribution, reflecting on the application of the model and its added value. The proposed approach constitutes the first attempt to represent and analyse Europeanisation in the field of TG&SP in a comprehensive and systematic way. The results of the analysis led to circumstantial recommendations for policy-makers at various levels, with the aiming of enabling better cross-fertilisation between domestic TG&SP and EU Cohesion Policy