Competitiveness and Cohesion in V4 Countries after Lisbon Strategy

Competitiveness and cohesion are two complementary objectives, which determine the long-term development of the European Union. The last and not very successful attempt to gain world leadership in competitiveness was the Lisbon Strategy which has since 2010 its successor in Europe 2020, the new EU´s growth strategy for the coming decade. The development of the V4 Visegrad Four Group Central European countries after joining the EU in 2004 has been influenced by trends and objectives set by the Lisbon Strategy. The relatively positive development of their economies, economic growth and the level of convergence has been interrupted by the global economic crisis. This article aims to analyze and compare the development of the V4 countries in terms of the Lisbon strategy and by the use of structural indicators established for its evaluation and to assess their perspective in the new EU strategy for 2020.