The Problem of Regional Resilience of the European Union at the Current Stage

The paper provides a comparative analysis of the European NUTS 2 regions at the current historical stage from the standpoint of the concept of regional economic resilience. The author defines regional economic resilience, establishes the link between the European regional policy and the resilience concept, and summarizes the conclusions of contemporary researchers about the determinants of the economic resilience of individual EU regions during and after the global financial crisis and during the ongoing coronacrisis. Based on the results of the comparative analysis, the author confirms the hypothesis that the difference in the regional economic resilience is closely and causally interconnected with their uneven socio-economic development. In addition, the author concludes that the post-coronavirus recovery strategies adopted today at the European and national levels carry significant risks of further reducing not only the economic, but also the political resilience of the European Union. This, in turn, can adversely affect the effectiveness of the European external actions (mainly humanitarian and development policy), the important aspect of which is strengthening the resilience in less developed countries.