Regional Policy and Decentralization in the Czech Republic

EU accession has had an ambiguous impact on regionalization in the Czech Republic. While EU membership necessitated the creation of regional administrative structures to manage the Structural Funds, the role of new regional authorities was often undermined by the centralized nature of the accession process itself. Developments since accession have created a new dynamic in the debate over regional policy and regionalization in the Czech Republic, however. Most significant are the increased political importance of the new regions and changes in partisan attitudes about regionalization. The impact of these developments is evident in the debate over regional policy planning for 2007-2103. Thus, despite its limited initial impact, EU accession has created the structural potential for increased regionalization in the Czech Republic which has been actualized by the changing constellation of political forces and altered preferences of key political actors in the country.