National frameworks for regional paradiplomacy in the Czech Republic, Poland and Slovakia in comparative perspective

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article offers a comparative analysis of the institutional frameworks for paradiplomacy undertaken by regions in the Czech Republic, Poland and Slovakia. The national frameworks are compared according to the following criteria: First, the legal competences of the regions regarding international cooperation with foreign partners in parallel with national diplomacy; second, European policy, through which two correlated sub-criteria are examined, first, how much access and autonomy regions have to manage EU funds at the national level, and second, the regions’ paradiplomacy at the EU level; and third, the relations between the regions and their national government, which are identified through the following two sub-criteria, first, government supervision of regional paradiplomacy, and second, government support for regional paradiplomacy. The article seeks to identify the degree of central government interference in the foreign activities of the regions, or the degree of their independence in conducting paradiplomatic activities in parallel with national diplomacy.Finally, this article discusses the advantages and disadvantages of the more centralist model of intergovernmental relations in paradiplomacy characteristic of Poland compared to the more liberal model found in this analysis in the Czech Republic and Slovakia.