Coastal Water Mangement Towards a New Spatial Agenda for the North Sea Region Region the North Sea for Spatial Agenda a New Towards European Union The European Regional Development Fund Coastal Water Management Towards a New Spatial Agenda for the North Sea Region Prepared for Interreg IIIB North Sea Region Programme by Resource Analysis, IMDC, PLANCO, ATKINS, INREGIA Authors: Elke Claus, Holger Platz, Michael Viehhauser, Jon McCue, Koen Trouw and Barbara De Kezel 37, Wilrijkstraat 2140 Antwerpen, Belgium Tel: +32 3 270 00 30 E-mail:
[email protected] TOWARDS A NEW SPATIAL AGENDA FOR THE NORTH SEA REGION Between 1998 and 2001, a spatial vision for the North Sea Region was developed, based on the principles of the European Spatial Development Perspective (ESDP). NorVision, as it was called, is a key advisory document, which has strongly influenced territorial cooperation in the North Sea Region. It describes the existing state of spatial development and suggests directions for the future. Projects that have been developed under INTERREG IIIB NSR put many of them into practice In mid 2004 the Programme Monitoring Committee for the Interreg IIIB North Sea Programme decided that there should be a selective update to NorVision to have valuable strategic input for the future cooperation in North Sea Region. They agreed that the original NorVision document continues to be relevant and should not be evaluated or reworked. The new spatial agenda, as is has become known, should focus on issues, which have become more urgent or important in recent years or which have not been thoroughly addressed in the original document.