Economic assessment of uniqueness of the regions in the context of the European Union

Abstract

This paper aims at analysing the uniqueness of the regions in the context of the European Union and providing a tool for economic assessment of uniqueness. Uniqueness of the regions can be used to increase regional economic resilience and economic advantage. Economic and social challenges in the European Union member states encourage finding new tools for regional development that would lead to implementation of the Europe 2020 goals. Economic assessment by using the uniqueness index was developed for the assessment of the uniqueness as economic advantage of the region. The results revealed that regional uniqueness index can be used for identification of typologies of the regions within a country that can serve as a basis for creation regional support strategy. Results can be used for recommendations for the regional policy to define important insights for next programming period 2014–2020 in the EU.