Competitiveness of Regions in Selected Countries of Central and Eastern Europe

Creating the competitiveness of voivodeships is a difficult and complicated process; the effect is a specific competitive position against the background of compared regions. This study complements the literature on the subject and presents a new perspective that presents a fuller and more comprehensive range of determinants influencing the level of competitiveness of territorial units, thanks to the use of the components of the European Regional Competitiveness Index (RCI) and the European Social Progress Index (EU SPI). The study carried out a comparative analysis of the RCI and the EU SPI of territorial units of Central and Eastern Europe in 2016–2020, and as a supplement to the cluster analysis, used the Ward method. The research results prove that territorial units in Central and Eastern Europe were characterized by a lower level of competitiveness and social progress compared to regions in Northwestern Europe. Between the regions of countries of Central and Eastern Europe, there was also a visible spatial differentiation of competitiveness between individual units. Cluster analysis facilitated the selection of regions and the identification of units that were internally and homogeneously consistent. This made it possible to select leaders among the regions of the above-mentioned regions. countries with a relatively high competitive position compared to the others, including the regions of the Czech Republic and Poland.