Spatial Planning Traditions in Europe: Their Role in the ESDP Process.

Making and applying the European Spatial Development Perspective (ESDP) is an example of `Europeanization'. Europeanization is the outcome of the interaction between actors with various motivations. in the case of the ESDP process, these motivations reflect the spatial planning traditions and the institutional set-ups of the relevant actors. As a preliminary, the paper describes the ESDP. It then analyses the motivations, reflecting as they do their spatial planning traditions and institutional set-ups, of four key actors without whom the ESDP would not have been what it is: France, the Netherlands, Germany and the European Commission. The paper ends with a discussion of the prospects of European spatial planning after enlargement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]