Challenges and Experiences of Working for the Planners Network for Central and South-East Europe

Abstract The paper should be considered a work report about a cooperative project rather than a research report theoretically discussing learning processes. The paper reflects on the transnational cooperation experience of the Planners Network for Central and South East Europe (PlaNet CenSE)1 project (an INTERREG IIIB project), where 2 5 project partners from 15 countries tried to pursue their networking activities. PlaNet CenSE served as a gateway for a mutual transfer of information and know-how and aimed to facilitate the integration of spatial development institutions and actors of non-EU member states into the European spatial development network. The assumption underlying their joint work was that networking becomes effective only through active collaboration. Thus, the aim and the achievement of the project were to increase common understanding concerning specific topics rather than to engage in extensive and consistent research. The challenging circumstances under which cooperation took place and its influence on networking as such are highlighted, stemming as they do from a complex and, at the beginning, unclear program structure, but also from political changes that created difficult working conditions. The paper also deals with the key messages of the two pilot projects that dealt with improved metropolitan networks and the north- south rail corridors in Central and South-East Europe. The paper concludes that, considering the present state of European integration and planning, especially in these two areas, learning through cooperation should be a very important, immediate and practical goal.