The Master thesis deals with the issue of European territorial cooperation programmes. It outlines the development of European territorial cooperation, its goals and objectives as its linkages to processes of evolution of European territorial development goals and documents. The involvement of Slovenia in transnational cooperation programmes and its successfulness are discussed in the paper. The thesis describes types of results delivered by projects and their further use after the projects closure. Longer lasting effects of projects and its results as its possible impacts to territorial development are treated. Some impacts are listed and the problem of observation and measurement of territorial impacts is described. Due to the nature of the project that are not investment orientated and deliver results that are thematically as geographically dispersed, observation of impacts is problematic.
Master thesis deals with two working hypotheses:
- Hypothesis 1: The results of the projects are rarely directly used in the daily work of project participants after the completion of project activities. The practical application of the results is less than it could have been, or there is a difference between the projects planned and actual effects achieved.
- Hypothesis 2: Great success of Slovenian organizations to engage in projects of transnational territorial cooperation is the result of an early integration of Slovenia into transnational cooperation programs and, consequently strengthening the institutional and personal networks in projects involving project partners.
In preparing the thesis descriptive methods and qualitative analysis were used as a tool for determining the effectiveness of cooperation in projects involved organizations, the reasons for their inclusion, the assessment of the performance of the integration and assessment of the applicability of the project results.The contents of the projects of transnational cooperation programs are very diverse. Most often, projects are addressing topics as environment, protection of nature and cultural heritage, disaster prevention and risk to climate change; spatial and regional development, rural development and urban development; transport, mobility and logistics, small and medium- sized enterprises and tourism related projects. Their substantive and operational differences are reflected in the large heterogeneity of the results obtained. The results of the projects and their impacts are highly geographically dispersed.
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