REGIONAL COMPETITIVENESS INDEX AS A SUITABLE TOOL FOR EVALUATING SOCIO-ECONOMIC SITUATION OF THE EU NUTS 2 REGIONS

Over the last decades, regional competitiveness has been intensely investigated and many studies reveal how all the regions are not equally able to face the challenges that the new competition proposes but they fail in supplying both an exhaustive explanation and a relevant, accessible and transferable measure of it. Supporting regional competitiveness requires creating framework conditions to develop the necessary infrastructure, human capital, technology and efficient markets that can help attract talent and investment to increase the standards of living of the population. Therefore, competitiveness has been an important issue on the European Union's agenda for several decades too. Launched in 2010 and published every three years by the European Commission, the Regional Competitiveness Index allows NUTS 2 regions of the European Union to monitor and assess their development over time and in comparison with other regions. This paper aims to throw light on some of the underlying aspects of regional competitiveness, give an overview of notion and methods used for planning tasks concerning regional competitiveness as well as analysis of research studies on constructing the territorial composite indices with special attention and application at regional level of the EU.