This paper considers how the emerging European spatial development policy agenda is influencing the performance of regional strategic planning in the United Kingdom. The European Spatial Development Perspective (ESDP) was agreed in 1999 as a non-binding and indicative framework intended to guide institutions in the exercise of their spatially significant competences. This paper explores the way in which and the extent to which the spatial planning policy messages and approach of the ESDP have been integrated into the planning process in England and how they have helped to inform the development of substantive objectives of regional planning policy. The research revealed considerable variation in the way that different regions had considered the European agenda and the ESDP as important contexts which can be used to inform strategy and policy development. Overall, the findings suggested that the European context and the ESDP are beginning to be accepted as important frames of reference in the production of regional planning guidance. Diagrams, table and references. [Taken from journal headnote].