ABSTRACT
This chapter presents the first experiences related to the implementation of the Integrated Territorial Investment (ITI). It assesses the effectiveness of this process, by defining its strong points and bottlenecks, which can diminish the impact of this mechanism on the implementation of the European Union (EU) Cohesion Policy. The EU Cohesion Policy is an important instrument of regional development which may be used to reduce regional disparities and to improve the competitiveness of particular regions. The chapter mentions that in the current Pomeranian Spatial Development Plan the boundaries of urban functional areas are synonymous with the boundaries of the Integrated Territorial Agreements (ITA). The decision to use ITI as a tool for the implementation of Article 7 concerning the integrated sustainable urban development in Poland was made quite early. The instrument was based on the broad partnership and bottom-up approach to the development strategy programming for the Urban Functional Areas.
