Nico van Ravesteyn & David Evers

Unseen Europe
A survey of EU politics and its impact on spatial development in the Netherlands

Design: Typography and other serious matters, Illustrated (colour), paperback, 160 pages, 17 x 24 cm
Text in English, ISBN 90-5662-376-1, € 27.00

The EU is involved, either directly or indirectly, in the most vital issues of national spatial policy. The indirect - and therefore usually unseen - consequences are often more significant, and will become increasingly so in the future.
These are the most important findings in 'Unseen Europe. A survey of EU politics and its impact on spatial development in the Netherlands'. This study by the Netherlands Institute for Spatial Planning (Ruimtelijk Planbureau) was presented to the Dutch minister of Housing, Spatial Planning and the Environment, Sybilla M. Dekker. This study surveys a selected number of spatially relevant EU policy fields and their potential impacts in the Netherlands.

Given this growing importance of European policy, those involved in spatial policy should keep abreast of developments to avoid being caught off-guard by new EU directives or initiatives. Where necessary position should be taken against the too uniform a character of European policy. Otherwise, the Dutch government should more actively anticipate the chances offered by the European context. Without this European perspective it is more and more difficult to conduct spatial policy. Instead of considering the EU as restrictive only, policy should therefore be formulated from a European perspective. In this respect the Netherlands still turns its back on Brussels too much.