The territorially-oriented cohesion policy of the European Union (EU), which emphasises, among other things, increasing the competitiveness of the regions and their sustainable development and improvement of quality of life, is being put to the test by changes arising from increased external migration, an ageing population and depopulation processes. Regional development policy, as implemented in Poland by voivodeship governments, closely follows the findings of EU and national strategic documents. Its effectiveness is linked to the extent of direct links between regional centres and possibly all local structures within the administrative territory. The spatial layout of the region should reflect, as far as possible, the functional impact of the voivodeship centre and the strength of its links with own regional peripheries. The authors formulate the thesis that large regions, most often the metropolitan ones, are not entirely covered by their centre’s influence and cooperation, and broad zones of peripheral character are created within them._x000D_
The aim of the study is to find out how far the regional centres are linked to their regions and to what extent they interact with their hinterland, including which local centres they are linked to and through which functions. The study also seeks to identify regional peripheral areas by identifying those municipalities that ‘do not feel’ the influence of regional centres._x000D_

Krystian Heffner (1), Piotr Gibas (1), Brygida Klemens (2)
University of Economics in Katowice (1), Opole University of Technology (2)

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ID Abstract: 277