Liechtenstein’s urban, natural, and landscape areas are interconnected in complex ways that extend beyond municipal boundaries. This gives rise to challenges and issues that can only be resolved through close, cross-municipal cooperation among the municipalities. Against this backdrop, the five municipalities of the Unterland region founded the platform “Development Concept for the Liechtenstein Unterland and Schaan,” or EKU for short. The first meeting took place in 2016, and funding was provided by the state.

Initially, this platform focused primarily on the problems and challenges related to road traffic that existed in the Liechtenstein Unterland or were projected for the future. To this end, the committee typically met two to three times a year. In addition to the mayors of the Unterland municipalities, one staff member per municipality, the responsible government member and secretary-general, as well as other representatives of the state, the municipality of Schaan also joined the EKU in 2017 due to the strong thematic interconnection.

As a first step, the EKU Working Plenum developed a shared vision for the year 2050 by 2018. To address the complex interrelationships between transportation, settlement, and natural and landscape areas, the EKU’s thematic areas were expanded. The target visions “Settlement,” “Landscape,” and “Mobility” were established. Building on this, the “Working Plenum” defined the corresponding overall strategy in 2019, comprising 12 strategic building blocks and numerous fields of action. Due to the negative referendum result on the Liechtenstein S-Bahn in 2020, a final revision was subsequently carried out.

Subsequently, the defined strategies, strategic components, and areas of action were broken down into various specific measures. As time went on, the joint plenary sessions increasingly focused on providing information and coordinating the specific measures to be implemented. In June 2023, the “Working Plenum” was therefore renamed the “EKU Exchange Platform.”

Since the various measures were being monitored by project-specific committees that included all relevant stakeholders, the need for coordination within the EKU became increasingly unnecessary. At the same time, however, the opportunity for cross-functional dialogue across multiple levels of the organization was considered highly valuable.

For this reason, it was decided in the summer of 2024 to dissolve the existing platform and process known as the “Development Concept for the Liechtenstein Lowlands and Schaan” as of the end of 2024 and to transition it into a new entity called the “Forum for Spatial Planning and Transportation – for Municipalities and the State.” The new body focuses on fostering dialogue among the municipalities as well as between the state and the municipalities, and now includes all Liechtenstein municipal mayors. Two meetings are held each year.