Spatial Planning and Regional Development

Regarding spatial planning, Portugal will continue the process launched in Rotterdam in 2004, which lead to the adoption of the Territorial Agenda of the EU during the German Presidency, which main purposes are to strengthen territorial cohesion and the global competitiveness and sustainability of European territories in the light of the Lisbon and Gothemburg Strategies and give a territorial dimension to EU policies and initiatives with a territorial impact.

It is Portugal’s responsibility to prepare an Action Plan for the implementation of the Territorial Agenda. This document will have both a political and a technical line of action and it will be prepared under the coordination of Portugal by a cooperative process between the Member States and the European Commission.

The Action Plan will be presented at the Informal Meeting of Ministers responsible for Spatial Planning and Regional Development, in the Azores in November. This Meeting will represent an opportunity for EU Ministers to focus on the implementation of the Territorial Agenda. The meeting will also address regional development namely its contribution to the achievement of the Lisbon and EU Sustainable Development Strategies. In this domain Portugal will also promote the launch of the debate on the future of the cohesion policy, based on the presentation of the Commission’s 4th Cohesion Report.

Portugal will also carry on the decisions of the Ministers meeting in Leipzig on urban development, namely regarding the coordination of European networks to exchange experience, learning and skills and generate new knowledge and the starting of the implementation of the Leipzig Charter on Sustainable European Cities.