Spatial planning systems on the eve of the economic crisis, 2000-2010

In this chapter the author presents an overview of the spatial planning systems of Cyprus, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Portugal and Spain, in the period immediately preceding the 2008 fiscal crisis, which gradually reached these countries in the following years. Although the main purpose is to present the instruments, legal framework, and institutions of spatial planning, the account is enriched by comments on their successes, failures and problems. This presentation is necessary for a better appreciation of the efforts to revise legislation in the years after 2010 (chapter 6), particularly in the Greek case (chapter 7) and of the form that the systems eventually took after the crisis (chapter 8). The examination of the nature of the economic crisis itself is left for chapter 5. This chapter shows the gradual convergence of planning systems towards a hierarchical, rational model, which was naturally adjusted to the particular traditions and administrative apparatus of each country. Given that the reform of the planning systems was considered a prior action in the bailout agreements between each country and the international supervisory agencies which provided advice and assistance, this chapter aims at a better understanding of what the reforms were required to alter. The omnipresent problems of spatial planning theory and practice are brilliantly identified in a commentary by Irish experts, which explains the inclusion of a long section on Ireland. Short summaries are placed in recess at the end of all sections to assist the reader.