DEVELOPMENT OF THE MUNICIPALITY OF LEĆEVICA USING EU FUNDS AND THE ITI MECHANISM.

The Mechanism of Integrated Territorial Investments (ITI mechanism) is a new mechanism of the European Union created in the financial period 2014-2020 with the aim of developing large cities recognized as development generators in their environments. Therefore, in the Republic of Croatia at the end of 2015, based on the Regional Development Act, urban agglomerations and urban areas were established, including the Urban Agglomeration of Split, which consists of 13 units of local self-government, namely the City of Split as the lead city of the Urban Agglomeration, the cities of Kaštela, Omiš, Sinj, Solin, Trogir, and the municipalities of Dicmo, Dugi Rat, Dugopolje, Klis, Lećevica, Muć and Podstrana. The Municipality of Lećevica, as the smallest and least developed unit of local self-government in the Urban Agglomeration of Split, successfully implemented five EU projects funded by the ITI mechanism during the financial period 2014-2020, three from the Operational Program Competitiveness and Cohesion 2014-2020 and two from the Operational Program Efficient Human Resources 2014-2020. This was a great success for Lećevica, resulting in the title of the second most successful municipality in Croatia in terms of EU funds absorption in 2022. The residents of the Municipality of Lećevica, as end users and target groups of the projects, were maximally involved in project activities, especially in two "soft" projects through which they were able to participate in numerous workshops, education sessions, and social gatherings held in three reconstructed, renovated, and equipped facilities owned by the Municipality, also through ITI projects. Since the residents of Lećevica are mostly elderly, frail, isolated, and scattered across numerous settlements, transportation to project activities was organized and provided to them by an official vehicle procured from the project precisely due to the need for organized transportation of workshop participants. This paper provides a detailed description of the successfully implemented ITI projects of the Municipality of Lećevica, namely the "Multifunctional Center of Fra Ante Konstantin Matas," the Arrangement of the Pišteti Well within the project "Open Summer Stages of the Urban Agglomeration of Split," the Development of Services and Capacities of the Development Agency of the Municipality of Lećevica "Lasta," "All for Lećevica," and "Together with Us.". [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]