Christabel Meyers, International Planning Division, UK Department
for the Environment, Transport and the Regions, led the Syndicate Group
on Land-use and Spatial Planning. Wladyslaw Duczko, Assistant Professor at the University of Uppsala, Sweden, chaired the session, and Stefan Lasch-Abendroth, Lecturer, European Centre for the Preservation and Restoration of Historic Monuments, Germany, was the Rapporteur.
Christabel Meyers focused on the European Spatial Development
Perspective (ESDP), explaining that this was an inter-governmental
document, rather than Commission-led, and it was not intended to be
legally binding. Rather it would act as a common reference framework for
those authorities involved in policy formation and seek to improve the
implementation of policies and to increase their efficiency by taking
into account the spatial aspect.
She explained that the ESDP considers current Europe-wide trends in
areas such as the changing role and function of rural area, changes in
transport and the continuing pressure on the natural and cultural
heritage. Taking into account European Policies such as the CAP,
Structural Funds and Environmental Policy, the ESDP puts forward Policy
Options to address certain trends, for example, partnerships between
town and country, diversification of rural areas and the conservation
and development of natural heritage.
The Group discussed whether a need could be identified for an initiative
such as the ESDP and it was agreed that, in its capacity as a
non-legally binding policy reference framework, it would be very useful
to many European cultural heritage organisations. It was agreed that
some spatial planning issues had to be tackled on a transnational level,
for example where countries shared marine environments or a river
basin. In other cases an issue might be of a local significance, and
where other localities were facing the same challenge, transnational
partnerships could be formed to tackle them. Further discussion
established that there are some issues which had not been covered in
depth in the document, which participants felt it would be useful to
develop, for example, air pollution.
Christabel Meyers stressed that there was still a great deal of
discussion to be had before a final document was produced and all
suggestions would be taken into consideration. The ESDP was still in the
development stage and, while it would undoubtedly be a very valuable
reference framework for planners, it was likely to have long-term
implications rather than provide short term solutions to current issues.
It was concluded that working together to address common planning
challenges would greatly benefit many cultural heritage organisations
across Europe and that the partnerships formed through the European
Exchange Programme and the European Heritage Partnerships Workshop would
provide valuable links for this. It was agreed that the ENNHO Network
was an ideal framework for such co-operation.
