The European Grouping for Territorial Cooperation is a European legal instrument designed to facilitate the implementation and the management of projects in the field of cross-border cooperation, overcoming the difficulties coming from different regulations and procedures. In addition, the aim of the EGTC is to make easier to perform common tasks. The EGTC GO, established on August 8, 2011 by the municipalities of Gorizia, Nova Gorica and

Šempeter-Vrtojba and endowed with legal personality, aims at promoting and supporting the territorial cooperation, including all the activities linked to the regional development of the area belonging to the three municipalities.
The EGTC GO represents an innovative, unique, tool to pursue the path towards an advanced crossborder cooperation that will allow to realize the strategic objectives of the three cities.
The EGTC GO was established to identify and cope with common challenges in order to strengthen the cross-border territory. The strategic plan of the EGTC GO was adopted through a joint effort that involved also citizens and experts in many fields such as transportation, energy, healthcare, culture and education, city planning and sport. The strategic plan is based on three pillars: 1. Promotion of the tourism heritage and cross-border natural resources; 2. Sharing of health services; 3. Gorizia-Nova Gorica-Šempeter Vrtojba railway line.

INTEGRATED TERRITORIAL INVESTMENT (ITI)

The Integrated Territorial Investment is a tool designed to implement territorial strategies in an integrated way. ITI allows to draw on funding from several priority axes of one or more Operational Programmes. The main objective of this tool was to ensure the implementation of a long-term strategy in order to cope with social and economic challenges for a specific territory. In 2014, the representatives of the EGTC GO who were in the task force of the Programme Interreg V Italy-Slovenia 2014-2020 proposed to combine the tools of the EGTC and the ITI, granting a meaningful added value to the Programme. The combination of these two tools offers the possibility to translate the strategies into actions that go beyond administrative borders.
In December 2015, the European Commission specifically recognized the Integrated Territorial Investment for the development of the cross-border territory of Gorizia, Nova Gorica and Šempeter-Vrtojba, with a total grant of 10.000.000 Euro (85% provided by the ERDF and 15% by national funding). The EGTC GO was assigned the role of intermediate authority with the responsibility to implement the ITI in the territory of the three municipalities. The EGTC GO has the authority to intervene on the territory of both states to implement common projects.

SOLE BENEFICIARY MODEL

The EGTC GO implemented the common strategy in his authority as sole beneficiary, consolidating the new concept of territorial cooperation, which represents the most advanced kind of cross-border cooperation. This was indeed the first European case of implementation of a common strategy by a sole beneficiary. In this sense, the EGTC GO -the only entity with territorial authority in the cross-border area- encouraged the dialogue, coordinated the institutions that implemented the projects, consolidated the managing mechanisms on many levels, promoted partnerships with Italian and Slovenian stakeholders involved in the development of the territory (like firms, local communities and public corporations) and informed the citizens about the project activities.