EGTC AS A NEW DIMENSION OF ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COOPERATION OF REGIONS WITHIN THE CONTEXT OF PROGRAMMING PERIOD 2014-2020

The European Grouping of Territorial Cooperation is a quite new European legal instrument designed to initiate, facilitate and promote cooperation in different European regions (cross-border, transnational and interregional cooperation). Unlike the older cooperation structures which governed cross-border, transnational and interregional cooperation before 2007, the European Grouping of Territorial Cooperation is a legal entity and as such, will enable regional and local authorities from different European states, to set up cooperation groupings with a legal personality. The contribution deals with an analysis of European Grouping of Territorial Cooperation, new form of cross-border cooperation in the European Union. The main objective of the submitted contribution is to analyse historical development of this cooperation between years 2008-2016, based on own research and study of relevant Committee of Regions documents (for example EGTC Monitoring Report 2015). The assessment of the EGTC can be described as a comparative time and space analysis, because different units are being compared not just in time, but also from the point of view of their geographical location. The contribution discussed the growing relevance of the EGTC as instrument of regional development, uneven development in individual countries (Hungary, France, Slovakia x Scandinavia, the Baltic States, Great Britain and Ireland), terminological problems and validity of EGTC databases.