European Integration and Spatial Planning

Seminar paper from the year 2005 in the subject Geography / Earth Science - Demographics, Urban Management, Planning, grade: 1,5, Uppsala University, language: English, abstract: 'European Integration'describes a process, which tries to build up a kind of political, and economical union as well as a social and political integration of different persons and population groups within the European Union (SCHUBERT/KLEIN 2003:43). This is a very short definition of a very complex procedure which contains a lot of different aspects. One of these aspects is the spatial planning, which importance is strongly rising. On the one hand is the European Union with its 25 member states, with a population of 455 Million, with an area of nearly four Million square kilometre and a GDP (Gross Domestic Product) of 9738 billion Euro (WIKIPEDIA 2005) one of the biggest and strongest economic areas in the world, but on the other hand are the regional differences between the countries and also within the countries enormous. Following illustration shows the disparities in the year of 1997. These disparities have enlarged with the joining of the ten new member states.