European Territorial Cooperation (ETC), known as Interreg, is one of the two goals of cohesion policy for the period from 2014 to 2020. The main goal is to tackle common challenges identified jointly in the border regions and exploit the untapped growth potential in border areas while enhancing the cooperation process for the purposes of the overall harmonious development of the Union. For the first time the Republic of Croatia can fully participate in all three parts of the ETC. The projects analysed in this seminar paper are co-funded by the Interreg CENTRAL EUROPE, in which the Republic of Croatia has been participating since 2014. The final thesis presents the analysis of pilot-investments co-financed by the Interreg Central Europe Programme in the period 2014-2020 in Croatia. Four analysed pilot investments, representing the typical examples of pilot investments co-financed by ETC Programmes, were implemented in Čakovec, Karlovac, Split and Zagreb. Thematically, the investments are divided into two groups; the first group refers to pilot investments in automatic energy and water meter reading devices (projects TOGETHER and ENERGY@SCHOOL) and the second group refers to pilot investments in a modern LED lighting system (projects CitiEnGov and Dynamic Light). During the TOGETHER project implementation eight partners from seven countries worked intensively with the public sector in the selected Central European regions to help civil servants manage energy and water consumption in public sector buildings better. The project also carried out pilot investments through which the project partners implemented automatic energy and water meter reading devices in seventy public sector buildings. Part of the pilot investment was the installation of such systems in eleven school and kindergarten buildings owned by the City of Zagreb. The goal of the ENERGY@SCHOOL project was to strengthen the capacities of the public sector in the education system, where twelve Central European partners educated school staff as well as students themselves how to manage energy and water systematically. During the project, eight pilot investments were made in the energy and water consumption monitoring system, and this investment also included five schools in the city of Karlovac. The pilot investment in the modernization of public lighting system in the Bačvice area of the city of Split was finalized in 2018 as part of the CitiEnGov project. The modernization of the lighting system includes eighty lighting poles with eighty-two LED lamps that can be operated individually. The central monitoring system is being used to remotely control each individual luminaire, and it also gathers various technical data as for example energy consumption. As part of the Dynamic Light project, a pilot investment was made in the renovation of the public lighting system along the roads surrounding the city centre of Čakovec. The system includes the replacement of one hundred and sixty existing lighting fixtures with one hundred and fifty new LED lamps and two sets of sensors that monitor atmospheric conditions (fog, rain, etc.), which with the central monitoring system can regulate the illumination of roads. The final thesis aims to emphasize the importance of the pilot investments aiming to leverage green energy spending. Most pilot investments carried out through ETC programs encourage significant investments in energy efficiency at the regional level, which is shown in the continuation of this thesis.