Abstract
The last two decades have witnessed a rapid development of various forms of Public-Private Partnerships in Europe. Transport belongs to sectors where PPPs have been most visible and transformative.
Yet not all countries have embraced the new method in the same manner. As some initial studies indicate, their PPP readiness varies quite significantly.
At the same time, PPP as a product of New Public Management appeared to be in ideological conflict with several new competing paradigms in the field of public policy and public administration. So far, however, no single study has shown how these compatibility issues are dealt with in practice and how (un)successful in reality the European countries are at implementing transport PPPs.
This is mostly due to difficulties in formulating appropriate and comparable evaluation criteria. At the same time, with many projects it was simply a bit too early to say whether the original expectations had been met.
This study uses a negative definition of PPP success and establishes the failure rate for each country from the sample. In doing so, it only takes into account projects that were abandoned or seriously distressed and modified in advance stages of the procurement process.
As a result, transport PPP failure rates of selected European countries are compared. At the same time, the main success/failure factors within the wider PPP institutional framework are identified.
Once such overview is provided, the dissertation continues with an analysis of PPP governance deficiencies using the data from a survey among expereinced PPP professionals. Basing on both - interviews and analysis of success/failure factors - the study formulates several hints and recommendations to put PPPs in line with the requirements of good governance framework.