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The European Union's enlargement process raises the problem of the definition of Europe and its limits, but even more so that of its representations. This paper presents the method and main results of a survey on the representation of Europe by researchers and political representatives involved in European spatial planning in the ESPON programme. It aims not to propose a limit to the European space but to show a vision of Europe from the viewpoint of a specific group and to try to explain it. This survey shows that the traditional school definition plays an important role in the definition of Europe, and furthermore that spatial proximity facilitates the perspective of the enlargement.