Purpose of the Council

The European Council of Spatial Planners is composed of national institutes and associations of spatial planners in countries belonging to the Council of Europe, each of which is entitled to at least two delegates.

It has three principal aims:

• To strengthen professional and cultural relationships between the institutes and associations of spatial planners in Europe and the relationships between them and European institutions.
• To propose systems of teaching and training for spatial planning and to suggest methods of harmonising the present systems.
• To put forward and suggest European development policies and to express opinions on important issues.

BENEFITS AND RESPONSIBILITIES OF ECTP MEMBERSHIP

Members of ECTP enjoy:

• Fellowship with other professional planners, including excellent opportunity for bilateral contacts e.g. when planning study visits or carrying out research ?„   Increased influence with European institutions through collective lobbying
• Free or cheap versions of all ECTP publications listed on the website, for example the New Charter of Athens and “Try It This Way – ECTP Good Practice Guide on Planning for Sustainable Development
• Regular professional conferences attached to General Assembly meetings, and free-standing events such as the seminar on “the next ESDP”.  (See website for papers from past conferences)
• Access to and reduced price registration for events such as joint conferences with the Association of European Schools of Planning and the International Society of City and Regional Planners.

An organisation joining ECTP is expected to:

• Nominate at least one, and preferably two, delegates to play a full part in the work of the Council
• Send at least one representative to ECTP General Assembly (GA)
• Promote and participate in ECTP programmes and activities

Membership of ECTP-CEU is open to planning organisations all over Europe. They all support the International Agreement and Declaration in the founding Charter of ECTP-CEU and they sign this Charter as part of the membership process. The benefits of membership are set out here.

LEVELS OF MEMBERSHIP

There are three levels of membership: full, corresponding and observer.

• Full membership is for national Institutes and Associations of spatial planners in Council of Europe countries which meet ECTP-CEU membership criteria. The criteria are listed in the Statutes. Broadly, the organisation needs to be an independent body dedicated to promotion of the planning profession, supporting the roles and activities of spatial planners as set out in the Charter of European Planning 2013.  The delegates representing a full member have full voting rights in the ECTP-CEU General Assembly.
• Corresponding membership is for organisations which are interested and involved in European spatial planning but are not the national body representing the profession – they might represent another profession allied to planning such as architecture or surveying, or commercial developers, or an administrative body such as a municipal or regional authority. There is a fuller list in the Statutes.   Corresponding members are important to ECTP-CEU because they enable the organisation to focus on spatial planning as it is practised in Europe, whether or not those actively involved describe themselves as “professional spatial planners”.
• Observer membership would be suitable for a planning organisation which does not meet the criteria for full membership, but is working towards them.  For example, ECTP-CEU welcomes applications from organisations which do not yet have an independent constitution, but are working on their Statutes with independence as a goal.  Several of ECTP-CEU’s current members have passed through an “Observer” stage on the road to full membership.

SUBSCRIPTIONS

• Full membership: Each member pays an annual subscription based on the number of their members as detailed hereunder:

These amounts are then balanced depending on the countries PPP (Purchase power parity).

• Corresponding members: normally pay a contribution equivalent to one third of the subscription for full members of a similar size.

APPLYING FOR MEMBERSHIP

Please download here the application form for full membership or corresponding membership and send it to secretariat@ectp-ceu.eu.  The Executive Committee reviews all membership applications in detail and makes a recommendation to the General Assembly which then votes on all applications.

• Pay the annual subscription
• Supply basic contact information to go on the ECTP website
• Supply detailed contact information for the delegate(s),
• Consider nominating a delegate for election to a place on the Executive Committee (ExCo), which means being willing, ultimately, to stand for President