Changes of Competitiveness of Regions of North-Eastern Borderland of the European Union

One of the main goals of the EU is to increase the competitiveness of integrating countries and regions. North-eastern borderland of the EU is an important area for the whole European Union because of its geopolitical location. Countries located here are members of two communities: the European Union and the Commonwealth of Independent States. Different political and economic systems resulted in creating the differences of regional competitiveness. Market liberalization that took place in the first group brought economic growth increase but deepened interregional differentiations as well. Interregional differentiations deepened also in the Russian Federation whereas in Belarus old, opposite to market economy rules, tendency of centralized leveling of differentiations has been continued. As a result north-eastern borderland of the EU became more and more incoherent. This occurrence is still not enough identified and documented.Present paper aims at describing the results of analyses and evaluation of territorial differentiation dynamics and level of economic competitiveness in the area of selected, bordering regions of Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. These results are an outcome of international research project, including statistical and questionnaire research. Conclusions of this project may contribute in improvement of regional policy and good neighbourhood policy of the European Union