Regional Competitiveness of Bulgarian Regions and their Place in the European Union

Abstract

Changes in the global economic environment in recent years have highlighted the fact that in many countries the sources of growth are not well utilized, thus highlighting the need for better measurement of economic performance, including critical elements to sustainable economic development. The EU Regional Competitiveness Index is the first multi-component indicator to provide a systematic picture of the territorial competitiveness of each region in the 28 (up to 2020) Member States of the Union. The paper briefly presents the methodological framework of the index and then it will be applied to the Bulgarian NUTS 2 regions. The results show the place of the country and its regions in the EU and allow us to draw conclusions about their strengths and weaknesses in their regional development in general, as well as in relation to the eleven main areas that the index measures.