The Impact of European Regional Policy and Local Action Groups on Intermunicipal Cooperation in Slovakia

Abstract

One of the most widespread forms of inter-municipal cooperation has been the Local Action Groups that take advantage of EU subsidies to develop municipalities and regions. Their great advantage is not only the opportunity for regional development of municipalities through a redesigned EU project submission system, but also the involvement of a wider spectrum of actors’ networks from the public, private and civil sectors in joint development programmes. One of the problems of this process may be the institutional division of regional self-government, which determines how municipalities choose “partners” for cooperation. The research question of this study is how the institutional division of self-governing regions influences cooperation between municipalities in Local Action Groups in the Slovak case study. Is the system of self-governing regions, which is anchored in legislation, an advantage or a limiting factor for cooperating municipalities? This chapter responds to the fact that the “artificial” division into regions may ultimately disadvantage municipalities in choosing cooperating partners. Municipalities are in practice choosing partners for cooperation within a single self-government region. The research is based on the comparison of two regions, Trnava and Nitra, looking at the activities of the established Local Action Groups. Our qualitative research is based on an analysis of the founding treaties of the cooperating municipalities, interviews with the direct actors of the Local Action Groups and analysis of their activities overall. The chapter enables us to understand the possibilities of cooperation for the smallest municipalities in Slovakia in a more complex way.