Territorial Cohesion and Regional Competitiveness: Defining Key-Notions in the EU's Regional Policy

By using three types of sources (official sources of the European Union, results of a questionnaire to practitioners, results of applied researches on European spatial planning), we demonstrate that no precise definitions can be given of two main notions of European spatial planning. This result is coherent with the literature on this field. This situation questions the operational interest of such notions. Some consider that a “pragmatic” view must be adopted. For them, research on that field should take into account what the notions are "doing" instead of trying to understand what "are" these notions. Nevertheless, a strictly pragmatic approach evades the issue of the choice of policies that are always normative (or “essentialist”).