Europeanisation of Spatial Planning in the Netherlands mapped out
One of the priorities of the Dutch EU presidency is the European Better Regulation Agenda. A particular cause for concern within this agenda is the fragmentation of EU policy. In this context, PBL Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency investigated the effects of fragmented EU policies on Dutch spatial planning.
Divergent policies
The publication ‘The Europeanisation of spatial planning in the Netherlands’ concludes that the national government should retain an active role in spatial planning to ensure policy coordination.
By mapping out impacts, the study revealed that virtually the entire Dutch territory is affected by overlapping EU policies, such as on biodiversity, environment, competition, regional development and transport. There is no spatial planning authority on an EU level to coordinate the effects of these divergent policies.
Spatial planning can help to resolve conflict
Nevertheless, conflicts were found to be only small, in practice. One reason for this is that EU policies tend to sort themselves out between urban and rural areas, reducing policy overlap and therefore potential policy conflict. Moreover, spatial planning itself can help to resolve conflict that does arise between, for example, environmental protection and economic development.
It is therefore not primarily a matter of fragmented EU policies hampering Dutch planning, but rather of Dutch planning acting as a vehicle to improve coordination.