The Evaluation of Social and Economic Development of the Region

Abstract

The subject of the article is the evaluation of social and economic development of the region in the content of the European Union. Without common approach as to evaluating progress and development based on integral indices and calculus as well as the authentic source of information, there is always room for subjectivity. Integration into the European Union accelerates the solution of the difficulties of regional policy in Lithuania. Pay attention to the regions is a constant part of the policy of European Union countries. The article analyzes the concepts of a region. There are analysed the conceptions, which differ in the nature and role of the regions, dynamism and development of regionalization processes, level of economic integration. The conceptions are the following ones: social geography, administrative-territorial, institutional, geopolitical and economic. Furthermore, the evaluation analysis of regional development level and its application in different foreign countries, prosecuted by the researchers are introduced in this article. It has been proven that regional policy in the EU level is necessary, as the European Union consists of 27 member states with 493 million people and the home market. It is evident, that there are economic and social differences in such a large territory within states and 268 regions, and the process of convergence is very slow and problematic. Thus, the article focuses on working out an effective evaluation method, which could be applied to achieve reliable results and would be effective in solving problems of regional development. The evaluation of regions’ social and economic development is a part of a broader analysis, comprising the preparation of evaluation methodology of regional policy’s influence and application in the content of the EU, where the first stage includes the composition of optimal set of indicators of social and economic development of regions. It should allow to perform interregional comparisons in order to prove the effect the regional policy on the development of problem-orientated branches of a region. The prepared evaluation methodology is applied empirically evaluating social and economic development of the region in the context of NUTS 2 statistical regions of the European Union, situated in the territory of twelve new the EU member states.