HOW SUCCESSFUL ARE MEMBER STATES WHEN FOLLOWING EU COHESION POLICY PRIORITIES? FOCUS ON THE VISEGRAD FOUR COUNTRIES

The study aims to assess the territorial context of EU cohesion policy implementation at the member state level following the Europe 2020 indicators. Special attention is paid to the Visegrad Four countries. The TOPSIS multi-criterion assessment method was used to monitor the progress of the EU member states in three key priorities (smart, sustainable and inclusive growth), but also globally in the context of cohesion policy as such. We concentrate on the cross-cutting years representing the period of the global economic and financial crisis (2010) as well as the post-crisis situation (2015) - the start and the midway point of achieving the Europe 2020 targets. The analysis has produced results confirming that the member states that joined the EU after 2004 have experienced different progress in the areas under consideration. Nevertheless, in assessing achievement in cohesion policy as a whole, they were ranked among the EU's most successful nations, of V4 countries especially Poland and Slovakia. This confirms the meaningfulness of the EU cohesion policy which should help new member state to catch up with the more developed ones.