European perspective

literature

Information

  • Author

    Gabriella Tóth

  • Year of publication

    2009

  • Language

    English (EN)

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EGTC – the EU’s new instrument of European Territorial Cooperation Programmes

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to describe and analyse the recent legal instrument provided by the European Union regarding territorial cooperation that can be observed on the international and supranational level in Europe: the EC Regulation on a European grouping of territorial cooperation (EGTC) adopted in 2006.

In the paper, the evolution of the territorial cooperation in the European Union is described. Different instruments are presented to illustrate the possibilities of territorial cooperation before the introduction of the Regulation on an EGTC. The paper presents a recently created EGTC on the Hungarian-Slovak border, the Ister-Granum EGTC. It discusses the advantages of the creation of this legal status applying for the Ister-Granum EGTC and aims to recognise its weaknesses. It also investigates in which aspects the EGTC can bring new dimensions into cross-border cooperation projects. Concrete examples of cross-border cooperation projects are presented and the facilitation of territorial cooperation projects by the EGTC is demonstrated.