POLISH ACADEMY OF SCIENCES STANISLAW LESZCZYCKI INSTITUTE OF GEOGRAPHY AND SPATIAL ORGANIZATION CENTRE FOR EUROPEAN STUDIES POLISH GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY EUROPA XXI EDITORS: TOMASZ KOMORNICKI and KONRAD Ł. CZAPIEWSKI WARSZAWA 2005 EDITORS: Maciej Jakubowski (editor-in-chief) Ewa Korcelli-Olejniczak Barbara Jaworska EDITORIAL BOARD: Marek Dutkowski (Gdańsk) Wanda E. Gaczek (Poznań) Jacek Głowacki (Warszawa) Jerzy Grzeszczak (Warszawa) Marek Koter (Łódź) Piotr Szeliga (Warszawa) Krzysztof Wojciechowski (Lublin) http://rcin.org.pl POLISH ACADEMY OF SCIENCES STANISLAW LESZCZYCKI INSTITUTE OF GEOGRAPHY AND SPATIAL ORGANIZATION CENTRE FOR EUROPEAN STUDIES POLISH GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY EUROPA XXI 13 NEW SPATIAL RELATIONS IN NEW EUROPE EDITORS: TOMASZ KOMORNICKI and KONRAD Ł. CZAPIEWSKI WARSZAWA 2005 http://rcin.org.pl VOLUME REVIEWED BY: Andrzej Kowalczyk EDITORIAL OFFICE: Institute of Geography and Spatial Organization, PAS 00-818 Warszawa ul. Twarda 51/55 tel. (48-22) 69 78 849 fax (48-22) 620 62 21 www.igipz.pan.pl/cbe e-mail: [email protected] PREPARED FOR PRINT BY: Małgorzata Cala Department of Cartography and Geographic Information Systems, Institute of Geography and Spatial Organization, PAS ISSN 1429-7132 http://rcin.org.pl CONTENTS MAREK DEGORSKI—New relations in new Europe—necessity of its cognition 5 SPATIAL DIMENSION OF EUROPEAN UNION ECONOMIC FUTURE 7 HORVATH GYULA—Regional disparities and competitiveness in Central and Eastern Europe 9 WEGENER MICHAEL, KOMORNICKI TOMASZ and KORCELLI PIOTR—Spatial Impacts of the Trans-European Networks for the New EU Member States 27 NEUBAUER JORG—Determining regions with particular needs for policy intervention after EU enlargement—a quantitative approach 45 tOBODA JAN—Internationalization of economy as a factor of transformation of East-Central Europe 53 PERSSON LARS OLOF and VAN WELL LISA—Spatial processes at macro, meso and micro level during EU enlargement 69 WEISS MARC—Teamwork: Why Metropolitan Economic Strategy is the Key to Generating Sustainable Prosperity and Quality of Life for the World 83 HAASE ANNEGRET and STEINFUHRER ANNETT—Cities in East Central Europe in the Aftermath of Post-Socialist Transition. Some Conceptual Considerations about Future Challenges 97 KOOS BALINT—The spatial aspects of logistic revolution in East-Central Europe 111 TRANSBORDER CO-OPERATION AS A FACTOR OF REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT IN EUROPE 121 KNIPPSCHILD ROBERT—Cross-border cooperation as a new tool for urban development in border regions? 123 SKORUPSKA ADRIANA—International activity of the local self-government 129 HARDI TAMAS—The Austrian-Slovakian-Hungarian tri-border region: emergence of a new transborder unit 135 TATZBERGER GABRIELE—The Vienna-Bratislava area—facing the trends and challenges 145 ZAPLETALOVA JANA—Geography of the Borderland: Euroregion Beskydy 161 POKLUDA FRANTISEK—Orlicko: A rural microregion on the Czech-Polish state border 173 IMRE NAGY and DURAY BALAZS—Possibilities of Environmental co-operation in the Border Regions of Hungary after the EU-accession 185 http://rcin.org.pl http://rcin.org.pl NEW RELATIONS IN NEW EUROPE—NECESSITY OF ITS COGNITION Since May 2004 the European Union—as a result of accession of 10 new member states to EU, including 8 from Central and Eastern Europe—not only has expanded its ter- ritorial range, but also it has entered a new era of socio-economic processes, which is a qualitatively new experience in the development of the Old Continent. This has led to the emergence of new economic prospects for functioning of the European Union, which significantly differs, both in spatial as well as functional terms, from the situation existing before 2004. With reference to the issues mentioned above, the 13th volume of Europe XXI focuses primarily on the research results concerning the spatial-economic relations and processes occurring within the EU member states after the EU enlargement, as well as attempting to prognosticate the consequences of these processes for the future of the EU. The vol- ume features 15 papers, which are divided into two parts according to their contents. The first part includes eight papers, whose central thread is reference to spatial di- mension of the expanded the EU, as seen from economic viewpoints. This thematic unit highlights, among others, issues pertaining to the regional disparities and competitiveness in Central and Eastern Europe, as well as determining regions with particular needs for policy intervention after the EU enlargement. The subsequent papers bring up the ques- tions related to spatial problems. The authors analyzed , among others, spatial impacts of the Trans-European Networks for the new the EU, spatial processes at macro, meso and micro level during the EU enlargement, as well as spatial aspects of logistic revolution in Central and Eastern Europe. Also, they drew attention to the process of internationaliza- tion of economy as a factor of transformation of Central and Eastern Europe. Apart from that they explained why metropolitan economic strategy is the key to generating sustain- able prosperity and quality of life for the world, as well as referring to the problems affect- ing the cities in Central and Eastern Europe in the aftermath of post-socialist transition and pointing to some conceptual considerations about future challenges. The papers included into the second part of the current volume are concerned with, broadly understood, transborder co-operation perceived as an element of regional devel- opment. In their papers, the authors discuss the concrete examples of various forms of close collaboration between member states of the EU in the selected geographical areas. Among them can be mentioned presentation of the development in rural microregions on the Czech-Polish state border and possibilities of the environmental co-operation in the http://rcin.org.pl 6 Marek Degórski order regions of Hungary after the EU-accession. There is also extremely interesting look at the newly created transborder structure as part of the expanded EU, which is presented in the description of Austrian-Slovakian-Hungarian tri-border region. The author of this paper underlines that emergence of a new transborder unit provides good opportunities for spatial and socio-economic development. According to another author, the similar chances for development exist within Vienna-Bratislava area where can be observed new economic trends after accession of Slovakia to the EU. Similarly, the development of transborder areas creates the need for co-operation not only at the governmental level but also at the local self-government one. This issue was highlighted in the paper 'International activity of the local self-government'. The author emphasized that one of the characteristic phenomena of the recent decades has been the increase in the intensity, scope and numbers of participants in international relations. EU funds are also used by international non-governmental organizations supporting foreign contacts of self-governments. Also, the benefits of transborder co-operation viewed by the prism of the urban de- velopment are highlighted in the paper 'Cross-border co-operations as a new tool for urban development in border regions'. The author drew attention to the fact that cross- border co-operation became a popular field of action during the last years, in particular in preparation and after enlargement of the European Union. Pointing to Germany as an example, he indicated that there occurred significant growth in the number of cross- borders activities between cities and regions on Germany's borders towards to Czech Re- public and Poland. The subject inextricably linked with the transborder co-operation is the issue of eu- roregions. The issue of euroregions became very topical in Europe from the beginning of the 90s of the last century. In the paper 'Geography of the Polish-Czech borderland: the case study of Euroregion Beskydy', the author presents the objectives of the the Eu- roregion, its organizational structure and some financial subsidies for the projects related with it. Concluding, the author underlines the benefits , both formal and economic, due to functioning of that Euroregion. Along with the present publication having been given to you, let me leave you with an open question: Is a new relation in new Europe a necessity of its cognition? Those of you who have read the papers included into the present volume may try and answer this question. If the provided texts make it easy for you to form an opinion and view on the presented issues, this, undoubtedly, will be a great success of the authors who contributed to this publication. The present publication is a joint editorial venture between Academic Branch of Polish Geographical Society and Institute of Geography and Spatial Organization Polish Academy of Sciences. Marek Degórski http://rcin.org.pl SPATIAL DIMENSION OF EUROPEAN UNION ECONOMIC FUTURE http://rcin.org.pl http://rcin.org.pl EUROPA XXI 2005, 13: 9-25 REGIONAL DISPARITIES AND COMPETITIVENESS IN CENTRAL AND EASTERN EUROPE GYULA H0RVÂTH Centre for Regional Studies, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, H-7601 Pecs, P. O. Box 199. e-mail: [email protected] Key words: Central and Eastern Europe, European Union, town, regional policy, regional diversity INTRODUCTION The community policy expresses the target of the member states solving certain tasks together. The common policies are mostly not regional developmental type and rather serve specific targets. Yet, the Maastricht Treaty set the impacts of territorial sectoral