Unit 1.3. The European Union and its Members Text 1 The European Union and Britain

Britain will press its 14 European Union partners to agree upon new proposals to coordinate their planning policies.

It will table a document which acknowledges that, as the EU states move towards closer economic and political union, the way each uses land and controls development affects the others.

Pressures are already being felt in border areas. A new bridge between Denmark and Sweden, for instance, has altered shopping patterns: Denmark restricts out-of-town shopping, so retailers have set up shop on the Swedish side.

In addition, member states face common issues in areas such as the Alps, the Danube, and the Baltic and Mediterranean seas.

The UK planning minister will present the first complete draft of the European Spatial Development Perspective to the EU regional policy ministers meeting in Glasgow. It proposes common approaches to housing, transport, urban renewal, rural issues, economic development, water supply and telecommunications.

The policy will affect the UK debates such as that over building homes on greenfield sites. Other states face similar pressures from the explosive growth of single-person households and urban sprawl.

The document is the culmination of a five-year attempt to reach agreement on planning issues and is a key priority for Britain's presidency of the EU.

Some members have been wary of extending the EU's reach into national governments' territory.

The document will be non-binding, but may eventually lead to pressure to arrange binding agreements on issues such as cross-border consultation. The UK sees itself as an "honest broker" because it has no land borders apart from that with Ireland. The UK planning minister has held meetings with doubters such as Spain, which devolves planning to regional governments, and Portugal. Final agreement is scheduled for early next year.

The document pursues EU objectives of sustainable development, competitiveness and social cohesion. It tries to ensure peripheral areas do not lose out when transport routes and telecommunications networks are established. It encourages towns and cities to cooperate with one another, to maximise their strengths and create regional transport networks.

It proposes ways to reduce urban sprawl and promote mixed-use developments, avoiding the growing segregation be­tween rich and poor which creates social exclusion. It supports diversification of struggling rural economies, often by joining forces with local towns.

The document charts the growth of "gateway" cities to the EU, such as Lisbon, and "world cities" such as London and Paris. Lille, it says, is emerging as a "major node" in the deve­lopment corridor between the UK and continental Europe, while Barcelona is becoming a metropolis for southern Europe.

Development, it says, is increasingly taking place along "Euro-corridors" such as that from Glasgow through London to the Transmanche area of northern France and Belgium, and that from Rotterdam via the Ruhr, Rhine, Main and Stuttgart to Munich.