Territorially Oriented Public Investment for Functional Types of Territories: The EU Experience

<jats:p>European practice shows that the approach to organizing public investments, based on a functional typology of territories, is effective because it defines planning units through the lens of real socioeconomic connections rather than administrative geography. The European Union’s cohesion policy, supported by a developed legal and institutional framework, demonstrates how a functionally differentiated approach to distributing public investments can ensure sustainable development of different functional types of territories. The aim of the study is to analyze the practice of carrying out territorially-oriented public investments for functional types of EU territories and the possibility of further adapting it to the realities of Ukraine. The article explores approaches to forming functional types of territories in the European Union, which makes it possible to move from implementing general sectoral policies to addressing more specific problems characteristic of different types of territories, both within EU countries and between them. The article looks into the conditions for attracting financial resources for carrying out public investments for the development of functional types of territories, which involves creating territorial and local development strategies based on the principle of participation. The article also explains how tools for integrated territorial development of EU functional territory types are used, including integrated territorial investments and community-led local development. Specific cases of using these tools in the European Union are presented, and possible ways to apply them in Ukraine are suggested.</jats:p>