The most important underlying cause is ineffective governance, linked to poorly enforced land -use policies and uncertain land-tenure regimes.

To take the example of geographical data (such as geographical coordinates, post codes, as well as maps, planning and land registration details): Fragmentation arises because different Member States collect and store data in different ways.

2. In particular where undertakings are deprived of access to viable alternatives because of the need to protect the environment, public health, public security or to meet town and country planning objectives, Member States may impose the sharing of facilities or property (including physical co-location) on an undertaking operating an electronic communications network or take measures to facilitate the coordination of public works only after an appropriate period of public consultation during which all interested parties must be given an opportunity to express their views.

The aims of these seminars are: - to inform regional and local authorities about activities at Community level in the field of regional development planning: the Europe 2000 programme, several Commission communications, opportunities offered by the INTERREG Community Initiative and pilot projects funded by the European Regional Development Fund; - to facilitate and encourage participation by the regional and local authorities in the broad cooperation which is starting up in the field of regional development planning in connection with the instruments mentioned above; - in the case of prospective new member countries in central and eastern Europe, to facilitate their understanding of the issues and include them in the emerging cooperation ...[+++]process; - give the main regional and local actors involved in regional planning and policy-making an opportunity to make their views known to representatives of the European institutions and pass on their concrete experience on the ground.

- Aid N 515/94 - Regional planning grant - France - Approval The Commission has approved a draft decree amending the French regional planning grant scheme ('Prime d'aménagement du territoire' - 'PAT').

We also have an advisory group of land governance directors representing framework agreement first nations—a national group, advising us—other land governance directors and land coordinators, and finally, we have recognized experts in specific content areas, such as environment, land surveying, distance education, land-use planning, law-making, and risk management. With that introduction, we're going to get into the specifics now on the details of the strategy so I'll ask Dr. Childs to begin here and we'll begin to share the pages.