Hodnocení rozvoje regionů Visegrádské čtyřky v kontextu politiky soudržnosti Evropské unie

Abstract

The doctoral dissertation thesis deals with the issue of regional development and regional disparities in the European Union. The European Union has been dealing with large internal disparities, which have a negative impact on cohesion and competitiveness of the EU Member States, their regions and thus the whole EU. The recognition of regional disparities, evaluation of the degree of regional development and identification of the causes of the unfavourable regions development are the key factors for successful solution of this issue. The main aim of the doctoral thesis is to evaluate the differences in the level of development of the NUTS 2 regions in Visegrad Four countries for the period 2001–2012 in the context of EU cohesion using the selected quantitative methods. For the analysis of regional disparities, the evaluation and comparison of the level of development of 35 NUTS 2 regions in V4, selected univariate and multivariate statistical methods and the multi-criteria decision making methods are used. The focus of the doctoral thesis responds to the lack of unified approach to assessment of regional differences in the EU. The results of empirical analysis indicate that reducing and also increasing regional disparities in the V4 countries were observed in the examined period 2001–2012. There are also significant differences between the regions with capital cities (CZ01 Praha, SK01 Bratislavský kraj, HU10 Közép-Magyarország and PL12 Mazowieckie) and other regions. Moreover, the significant disparities exist between the Czech NUTS 2 regions on the one hand and Hungarian, Polish and Slovak regions on the other hand. Taking into account the results of the doctoral thesis, multivariate and multi-criteria decision making methods can be considered well applicable methods in the regional differences evaluation.