ESPON‐COMPASS is an applied research project, which provides a comparison on territorial governance and spatial planning systems in Europe. It is the first comprehensive research on European spatial planning since 1997. The project substantially improves the knowledge based on territorial governance and spatial planning, and in particular, their role in the formulation and implementation of EU Cohesion Policy.
ÖIR conducted two of the case studies – Austria and Liechtenstein. The main task of ÖIR was to describe the current structure and the changes in spatial planning systems of the two countries from 2000 to 2016 and how EU policy has influenced the systems. Special attention is given to the relationship between the role of spatial planning and the Cohesion policy of the European Union. Outcome of the project is a comparative report comparing changes in spatial planning across 39 countries – the 28 member states of the EU, the four EFTA countries and seven candidate and other countries.
