The article involves analysis of urban competitiveness from the national and international perspective. The analysis is focused on possibilities of application of different methods, widely used for the assessment of both the company's, national and regional competitiveness, as well as on identification of advantages and disadvantages of such methods. The article also involves introduction of methodological guidelines on the assessment of urban competitiveness from the national and international perspective, based on results of theoretical and empirical analysis. The empirical study is based on analysis of the sample of Kaunas, the second largest city of Lithuania. From the national perspective the assessment of Kaunas city competitiveness is based on comparing it with other major cities of Lithuania-the country's capital Vilnius and Klaipeda, by employing statistical data of 2007-2010. The availability of official data at the regional level revealed that the assessment of international competitiveness of the cities, located in regions which, based on the territorial statistics units nomenclature, are attached to the third level (NUTS 3), should be equaled to the regional competitiveness itself. Measurement of Kaunas city and region competitiveness from the international perspective is based on statistical data of 2007-2011. The identification of specifics of measurement the urban competitiveness at the national and international level, presented in the article, is one of the ambitions to promote the methodological background for urban governance and improvement of competitiveness of Lithuanian cities. The article presents the continuity of the research work of the authors in the sphere of urban competitiveness measurement.

After analyzing the transformations in Lithuanian and Ukrainian economy, the integrated regional policies effect to regional differences development evaluation methodology was prepared, which is designed to link regional developments with regional policies. The purpose of the article is to present a common Lithuanian -Ukrainian assessment methodology developed in the scientific study, which ensures the objectivity and applicability to solve regional development issues. Summarizing the variety of development level indicators in the scientific literature and experience of Lithuania and Ukraine, four main groups of indicators are identified in this paper that accurately describe the socio -economic situation: demographic, social and economic development and labor market, assessed region's transportation systems and social and tourism availability, compared public infrastructure and services development indicators. Analysis of scientific literature, Lithuanian and Ukrainian experience, statistical data analysis, and expert evaluations carried out in both countries created a joint region competitiveness evaluation system. Performed evaluation of expert opinion consensus enabled to select the indicators of region's development level evaluation and their combinations, which are necessary to carry out inter-regional comparisons. The article also contains structure graph, dedicated to indicate the consistency in the execution of the evaluation process and opportunities of use of research data analysis methods to implemented regional policies development impact to region development deficiencies calculation. The findings of the article show that the effects of implemented measures of regional policy can be evaluated only in a few years by adding investment in business, human resources, infrastructure development, but it must be done periodically to monitor regional socialeconomic development processes and the effectiveness of regional policy changes.

The article deals with Lithuanian-Latvian cross-border region economic development trends and economic growth disparities. The problem and relevance of the analysis of Klaipeda County and Kurzeme region's economic development are based on the comparison of regional development theories and competitiveness models, which provide the scientific novelty of the topic and scientific interpretations of the review. The analysis of the development of cross-border socio-economic indicators confirmed the sociocultural integrity, commonality of problems and similar further development strategic directions of Lithuanian-Latvian border region. The paper defines the main border region's business growth factors, which include human resources, knowledge resources, capital, infrastructure as well as internal and external demand conditions. The study emphasizes that principal guarantees of regional competitiveness are business development, work place stability, manufacturing and service sector development, and the social well-being of the population.

Straipsnyje pateikiami bendri teoriniai regioninės politikos aspektai, taip pat nagrinėjamas regioninės politikos įgyvendinimas, apibūdinamas regioninės politikos įgyvendinimo vertinimas pagal sudarytą struktūrogramą, pateikiama moksliškai pagrįsta regioninės politikos įgyvendinimo vertinimo metodika, remiantis šią metodika atliekamas regioninės politikos įgyvendinimo vertinimas Europos Sąjungos kontekstu.