Bearing this in mind, the present thesis, build on the knowledge consolidated during my Master Studies in Territorial, Urban, Environmental and Landscape Planning, and in particular during the module Politiche urbane e territoriali in Italia e in Europa (headed by prof. U. Janin Rivolin), aims to explore the process of Europeanization of spatial planning in Germany. More in detail, the analysis builds on a conceptual framework developed by Cotella & Janin Rivolin to identify the “channels” that, on the one hand, contribute to direct the influence of the EU over the Member States’ spatial planning system and, on the other hand, allows the Member States to affect the development of those concepts, initiatives and actions that often goes under the label “European Spatial Planning” (Faludi, 2001; Janin Rivolin, 2004; Dühr et al. 2010).

The main objective of this thesis is to identify the possible evidence of Europeanization as changes in the national institutions related to spatial planning in the Federal Republic of Germany, by means of analytical methods observing the changes taking place. At the same time, the attitude of German Actors and institutions towards the territorial dimension of EU policy is also a matter of analysis, to speculate over their actual influence over the development of European spatial planning.

In support of the research for this thesis, I had the opportunity to perform an internship at the HafenCity University (Hamburg, Germany) in the Academic Year 2013/2014 (April to August), where I’ve been involved in the European Project INTERREG IV, URMA (Urban-rural cooperation in Metropolitan areas). Afterwards, aiming at collecting further material, I conducted a second period of research at the HafenCity University (October and November), looking for literature and interviews useful for the purpose of the thesis.

The volume is structured in six chapters. After this introduction, a second chapter presents the context of the thesis, focusing on the concept of spatial planning system, on the various families and idealtypes of planning system that characterize the EU Member States as well as on the territorial dimension of the EU policies. Then, the theoretical framework adopted by the research work is structured, together with the followed methodology, Chapter 4 focuses on the spatial planning system on the Federal Republic of Germany, and presents it according to the four main dimensions identified in the theoretical framework: structure, tools, discourse and practices. On the basis of the presented information, chapter 5 reflects over the Europeanization of spatial planning in the German case, on the one hand presenting the evidence of influence of the EU over the German spatial planning system and, on the other hand, reflecting over the influence of Germany over the European spatial planning. A last chapter closes the contribution, presenting the conclusions of the research in terms of intensity and trends of the various top-down, bottom-up channels of influence explored.

When looking at the Europeanization of spatial planning in the German case, the are no doubt that the influences between EU and Germany in spatial planning are taking place, here a possible interpretation is related to the “co-evolution” of ideas, discourses, beliefs and expectations.