The Principles for a European Spatial Development Policy adopted at the meeting of the informal Council of Ministers responsible for Spatial Planning in Leipzig (1994) specify
Development Objectives - Balancing Objectives - Protection Objectives as well as a number of common spheres of action for spatial development_ policy which should contribute to:
- strengthening cooperation among Member States in the field of spatial development as a basis for national spatial development policies conceived in a European context (reinforcement of the subsidiarity principle),
- coordination of policy areas affecting spatial development and of the various national spatial development policies in the work of the Commission on the basis of the objectives agreed on among Member States, and
- continued development of information strategies as an instrument to improve preparation of the basis for discussion on the issue of European spatial development (documentation, reporting).
The preparatory work on an E.S.D.P. shows that the aim of cohesion, in the sense of sections of the EU territory growing closer together, will generate a considerable need for action in spatial policy areas-and not only in peripheral areas, but also at the centre of the EU-if the aim of sustainable spatial and settlement development in Europe (Sustainable Europe) is to be achieved. It would therefore be highly desirable for the E.S.D.P., and the spheres of action referred to above, to be codified in Art. 130a and Art. 130b EC Treaty respectively.
Since the Community as yet possesses no powers in the field of spatial development policy, there is no basis in law for secondary legislation to endow a E.S.D.P. with binding force.
Approval for an E.S.D.P. should, however, be accompanied by a decision at a level below that of a Council act, i.e. in the form of a resolution. This would then be adopted either by the Council or by the representatives of the Governments of Member States meeting in Council.
The type of resolution which can be attached to an E.S.D.P. depends to a large extent on the persuasiveness of this document's contents. The degree of persuasiveness itself exerts an exponential effect: the more persuasive the ideas containedin the E.S.D.P. themselves are, the more influential the Perspective becomes in its own right, and, as a consequence of this, the terms within which the support for the E.S.D.P. is couched in the accompanying resolution will be all the more robust. The aim to strive for in connection with an E.S.D.P. should then be to bring about a qualified resolution.
If the EU were to be granted clearly defined responsibilities for an E.S.D.P. in Art. 3, or in some other part of the Treaty, then the E.S.D.P. could be enacted in secondary legislation as an act "... of the Council or of the Ministers for ... in the Council" or "... of the Council and the representatives of the Governments of Member States meeting in Council". The second variant would be preferable as this would lend greater expression to the cross-sectional nature of the E.S.D.P., characterised by its express orientation not simply to the policy of one department, but rather of addressing all policy areas of relevance to spatial development.
- the problem of regionalisation, taking the whole territory into account.
- the selection of indicators, which should be orientated around the primary tasks of European spatial development;
- the analysis of spatial segmentation processes, and
- the recording of disparities.
As stated in the draft resolution placed before the German Federal Council (Bundesrat - BR Publication 605/95) by the Land Baden-Württemberg and by the German Conference of Ministers for Regional Planning on 3 March 1995, a priority issue is that of instituting some form of reporting on the spatial impacts of Community policies; this could be combined, in terms of both timing and substance, with other forms of reporting.
In order to bring this about, Art. 130b (2) sentence 1 of the EC Treaty should be amended as follows:
"The Commission shall report every three years to the European Parliament, the Council, the Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions on progress in bringing about economic and social cohesion, and on the manner in which the means provided in this Article have contributed to such progress, and on the spatial effects of Community policies".
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