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EU planning for the years 2014-2020 introduced a new instrument for financing territorial cohesion policy - namely Integrated Territorial Investments (ITI). There is a notable lack of analyses concerning the evaluation of Poland's use of this innovative instrument for the uptake of EU funds. The aim of the article is to evaluate the implementation of ITI in Poland in the context of the system of obtaining and spending EU funds for the territorial cohesion policy in the years 2014-2020. The analyses were carried out in a normative economic perspective using secondary data on EU funds within the framework of regional operational programs. The research shows that the implementation of ITI in Poland has had the intended effect of meeting the conditions for obtaining EU funds for integrated territorial investments. However, this opportunity was not fully exploited due to the lack of tradition of cooperation between local government units other than in urban functional areas. Furthermore, the implementation of ITI in Poland indicates the danger of evaluating the effects of ITI in the context of contracting or certification of EU funds, which is not in line with the European Commission's guidelines for this instrument. Thus, the 2014-2020 period was not fully used by Polish beneficiaries to prepare for the new rules for receiving EU funds under the regional cohesion policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Subject and purpose of work: EU regional policy aims to increase the economic and social cohesion of the Member States. For the programming period of 2014 - 2020 a new tool has been planned, which will contribute to the effective implementation of the cohesion policy - Integrated Territorial Investment (ITI). The aim of this article is to determine whether the direction of measures arising from the assumptions of the cohesion policy 2014 - 2020, implemented in the ITI strategy, addresses actual problems in the area covered by the ITI strategy (on the example of Kalisz-Ostrów Agglomeration - KOA). Materials and methods: The study was based on the analysis and synthesis of EU and Polish regulatory provisions on the cohesion policy 2014 - 2020, data on financial allocation for the implementation of the ITI and literature on the subject of EU regional policy. Results: The direction of measures arising from the assumptions of the cohesion policy 2014 - 2020 in the ITI strategy addresses real problems in the development of the area covered by the KOA strategy. EU funds have been planned for: promoting entrepreneurship; promoting low-carbon strategies; the development of an educated society and investments in modern infrastructure. Conclusions: Solving the problems of the areas covered by the ITI strategy will depend on the realization of the development goals. Therefore, the synergy of conditions associated with the transformation of the postulated stage into the executive stage of the cohesion policy under ITI is necessary. This synergy is associated with both the quality of human capital and the amount of financial resources as well as the competences of those involved in the implementation of the ITI concept.

The main objective of this paper is to analyze the reasons of development of the Integrated Territorial Investments in the new 2014-2020 period in the context of EU reforms, and to describe the creation process and the threats this experimental approach may encounter in Poland. The Author's main thesis is that the experimental ITI concept causes additional conflicts between management authorities and beneficiaries who are used to the fact that declared and implemented intervention aims are different. The Author also assumes that there exist important factors that could potentially hinder the radical reforms and re-establish the status quo (or "domesticate" the policy). The main methods (desk research and involvement in preparatory works as a Ministry expert) determine the structure of the sources used. The paper offers some conclusions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]