TERRITORIAL COHESION AND THE GEOGRAPHY OF EU COHESION POLICY FUNDING IN THE CZECH REPUBLIC

This paper concerns the assessment of the match between the selected cornerstones of territorial cohesion, on one hand, and the EU Cohesion policy, which is understood as the source of territorial impacts, on the other hand. In particular, the paper examines the association between EU Cohesion policy funding (2007-2013) in the Czech Republic and the balanced territorial development of Czech micro-regions. Moreover, the spatial coherence of EU Cohesion policy and Czech national regional policy is as well considered. The empirical results do not provide evidence in support of this match. EU Cohesion policy funding does not compensate for the structural disadvantage of Czech micro-regions. Moreover, the spatial coherence of EU Cohesion policy and Czech national regional policy is missing. The territories, the support of which is regarded as desirable for the balanced territorial development by Czech national regional policy, do not show evidence of higher EU Cohesion policy funding. Low absorption capacity in these territories might be an appropriate explanation for this.