The aim of this paper is to investigate the role and position of Hungary in LEADER transnational cooperation projects of the rural development policy in the European Union between 2007 and 2013. On one hand we study – on a basis of official data – the main characteristics of the distribution of rural development projects among EU member states applying basic descriptive methods supplemented by certain concentration measures to quantify the inequalities of projects and funds and thus exploring the role of Hungary in the process of project generation and fund absorption. On the other hand, we apply basic network analysis techniques and network measures to illustrate and describe the transnational cooperation network among countries in the European Union and the position of Hungary in this cooperation network. According to the results, the distribution of both projects and financial resources allocated through these projects prove to be rather concentrated and Hungary seems to have a kind of comparative advantage as for possibilities of initiating transnational cooperation projects.
Keywords: rural development, cooperation, social embeddedness, social network analysis
