Resolution No. 2 on New prospects for regional/spatial planning at European level

The ministers attending the ninth meeting of the European Conference of Ministers responsible for Regional/Spatial Planning, which was held in Ankara on 4 and 5 November 1991,

Having taken note of the report submitted by the Norwegian minister,

Considering that:

– Europe is now undergoing important changes which will condition the future of regional/ spatial planning, such as

a. the process of integration in western Europe, especially the development of international trade and its implications for transport;
b. the development and impact of European sector policies, especially regional development policy and the Common Agricultural Policy;
c. the increasing number of countries in democratic Europe;
d. the development of technology and its impact on the location of industries and the restructuring of production;
e. the stagnation and ageing of the European population and the population pressures at borders;
f. the development of more resource-consuming life-styles with changes in living conditions,

– urban regions are expanding and Europe is faced with special challenges to avoid regional imbalances and the undesirable impacts of development on the environment and in the social sphere;
– peripheral regions which are disadvantaged in relation to the central region, intermediate areas with structural weaknesses and rural regions suffering from depopulation require special attention to achieve optimal use of their natural and human resources;
– it is now a common understanding that sustainable and balanced development is a fundamental management principle for planning and decision-making in the field of regional/spatial planning at regional, national and European level;
– forward analysis is an essential preliminary method of helping public authorities to take logical and well-balanced decisions in the light of the medium- and long-term impact in the fields concerned;
– a policy on regional/spatial planning should be devised to provide a better response to existing and future social requirements and to take due account of

a. the needs of future, as well as existing, generations;
b. a broader view of the quality of life of human beings;
c. the best possible balance of representation between men and women in the work of regional/spatial planning;
d. the best possible balance in the distribution of development between geographical areas, not only in Europe;

– the Council of Europe is an appropriate forum, politically and geographically, to consider the problems of regional/spatial planning in the widest possible European framework.

Decisions

Convinced that their meeting provides an opportunity to consider in greater detail current political questions and those involving an attempt to put into practice the major regional/spatial planning principles set out in the European Regional/Spatial Planning Charter;

Approve the principles set out in the work programme “Forecasting and rational regional/spatial planning” contained in document CEMAT (91) 5 and recall that the main aim of this programme should be to contribute to the preparation of the next conference;

Instruct the Committee of Senior Officials to

– continue its forecasting work in order to draw up guidelines that will enable Europe to take up the challenges facing it at the dawn of year 2000;

– focus its work on the search for appropriate solutions leading to lasting and fairly distributed development;

– ascertain the political changes of direction which can bring about the improvements needed to guarantee future generations an acceptable quality of life;

– identify the operational models making it possible to reconcile and co-ordinate regional/spatial planning decisions which are often the responsibility of local and regional authorities but which can only be effective and coherent if they are taken as part of an overall spatial approach at the national and European level;

Recommend to the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe that it

– grant the increased resources necessary for adequate implementation of the programme which the Committee of Senior Officials has been asked to undertake.