The Role of Territorial Partnerships at Local Level – the Case of “Cotnari Local Action Group”

The objective of this paper is to analyze new forms of local territorial partnerships developed under the territorial cohesion policy promoted by the European Union. In this context, the future of cohesion policy and the growing importance of territorial cohesion led to the initiating of the micro-regional projects in order to reduce economic and social disparities. The promotion of regional policies based on local agreement is dedicated to create partnerships in order to start projects for local development that involve civil society, municipalities, regions, private sector, experts, or private citizens. These partnerships are presented as informal organizations, created by cooperation at local level of public institutions, with social and economic actors stated aim to develop community consistently using all the resources offered by their territory. Such forms of cooperation can be found in several places in the world, but with a greater focus in Europe, and their main purpose is to promote community participation and sustainable development, engaging citizens and organizations in taking decisions at local level. The study aims to clarify the concept of “local action group” and to analyse the effects of public - private partnership on territorial development for the project initiated in the Harl u region. This project groups 12 administrative-territorial units from Ia i County, developed with the support from the European program LEADER.