Regional Formation and Development Studies

In recent years, inter-municipal cooperation in solving various common problems has become more popular in Europe, and has become an important part of European regional policy. These trends can also be observed in Lithuania. However, after a few generally agreed on success projects, there have not been many more successful municipal cooperation projects. Lithuania has been regulating cooperation between state institutions through legislation since 2000, which was supposed to stimulate regional growth and reduce interregional disparities. Providing municipalities with the necessary legal powers to provide public management and public services, and providing financial incentives, including European Union (EU) funds, to promote cooperation can achieve good results. In waste management in the regions and in organising public transport in the Tauragė and Klaipėda regions, EU support helped municipalities to agree on cooperation, and the same cooperation remained after the end of the EU support, and also a higher standard of public management and public services for all the municipalities that participated in these projects. This article aims to analyze recent changes in public administration regulation in Lithuania, which are likely to complicate cooperation between municipalities and, accordingly, high-quality public governance and the provision of public services in regions, and increase the gap between regional municipalities.