Since the biggest enlargement of the European Union in 2004, the EU cohesion policy has made a significant contribution to spreading growth and prosperity across the European territory. Despite this, the cohesion policy is still confronted with persistent economic, social and territorial disparities among countries and regions and weakened economic growth and competitiveness. The aim of the paper is to evaluate regional disparities in the case of the Visegrad Four (V4) countries in the year 2010 and to propose an alternative method of regional classification that could be helpful for the efficient allocation of European funds. In the paper, an analysis of the disparities in the V4 NUTS 2 regions is undertaken on the basis of cluster analysis. The three determined clusters confirm that NUTS 2 regions with capital cities (Praha, Bratislavský kraj, Mazowieckie and Közép-Magyarország) still occupy the dominant positions in comparison with other regions in the V4. Significant disparities between clusters are visible, especially regarding the economic and innovative performance and territorial cohesion.

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The presented paper deals with the regionalization of the electoral support of the Czech Pirate Party (Pirates) in regional elections using methods and techniques of spatial data analysis. The aim is to answer the question whether the territorial distribution of Pirate electoral support allows this party to participate in governance at the regional level and thus influence the form of regional policy in individual regions. The results of the analysis show that the spatial distribution of Pirates’ electoral support in regional elections differed quite significantly not only from the pattern found in the elections to the Chamber of Deputies of the Czech Parliament and elections to the European Parliament, but also between individual regional elections. This suggests the current lack of anchorage of Pirates’ electoral support in regional politics, but at the same time, it may have its origins in the second-order character of regional elections and the candidacy of many local and regional entities in regional elections. On the other hand, the results of the regional elections in 2020 meant that the Pirates received seats in all regional councils, but especially in nine of the thirteen regions they joined the regional government (similarly to two years earlier when they joined government of capital city of Prague), gaining the opportunity to influence, with regard to its priorities, the form of regional governance in most Czech regions.

Industry or business clusters have become a part of an industrial policy in most countries not only within the European Union and are considered an effective instrument for the growth of firms and regional competitiveness. Their development is promoted and supported by many financial schemes at regional, national and even supranational level. The development of industry clusters in Czechia has had a very short tradition so far as the concept of clusters has become known here only at the beginning of this century. Surprisingly public aid for cluster development was approved at the governmental level very soon and the top-down approach strategy followed. The objective of the paper is to identify the basic phases of cluster development in the Czech Republic and to describe the impact of public financing on cluster establishment and growth in Czech regions. The presented case of Moravia-Silesia shows the cluster dynamics in the region which made the use of EU structural funds efficient for their development.

Vzor citace / Citation example:AUTOR, A. Název článku. In Klímová, V., Žítek, V. (eds. ) In this context it is necessary to analyse the possibilities and seek new directions of development that can contribute to increasing the dynamism and development potential of economies. There is no uniform theoretical or quantitative approach to measuring the development and development potential of European territory. The main aim of the paper is to analyse the usability of spatial data analysis as theoretical and quantitative approach to regional development (potential) evaluation in the European Union. Based on the conducted literature review, spatial analysis and particularly method of autocorrelation can be considered as the suitable tool in regional development evaluation that helps to understand the spatial processes in the EU area. Key words European Union, development potential, methods, region, spatial data analysis Anotace Rozvojový potenciál evropského území (na úrovni země, regionu nebo místní jednotky) je v Evropské unii (EU)