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The aspiration of Serbia to join the European Union requires the transformation of the educational system of the country to adapt EU mechanisms. Such endeavours are reflected in the Law on Higher Education modificated in July 2013 and Law on Adult Education, wich is published in 2014. These may infer social and economic consequences on a wide scale. Our intention was to present the structure of the Serbian education system and the distribution of the educational level of the population applying secondary data analysis in our study. Furthermore, our goal was to shed light on a particular section of the Law on Higher Education which regulates the recognition of foreign degree (diploma); in addition, we intended to touch upon the issue of trainings in non-formal education controlled by the Law on Adult Education. Lastly, we addressed changes in the unemployment rate and levels of qualification of those without a job. Our work is applied from the perspectives of knowledge and knowledge transfer; since local economic development depends highly on the accumulated pieces of information acquired by experts.

A variety of motivations are needed to make people move house but, an even more profound determination is necessary to leave one's home country. It is not simple to replant an old walnut tree but, sometimes, owing to the fertile soil and the new, favourable environment, replanting can bring richer harvest. True, in the 21st century the continuously changing and, at times, revolting Europe is opening up for new migrants. Yet, a modern-age adventure-seeking Ulysses has to face many challenges; the Great Unknown might hide good and bad as well, meaning, that the migrants' knowledge and experience is often not enough: they often need much luck to succeed, too.
In a globalized European Union migration processes are organic parts of life but, due to the intensifying nature of the trend a sensitive question needs to be asked from time to time. Is migration a chance or a danger? In consumer societies interpersonal relationships transform lifestyle, as well as people's opinion concerning social mobility. Thus original social roots are being torn off, traditional relationships are fading and this is how a phenomenon called chameleon migration is established. As a result of the formerly mentioned processes temporary migration of work force is replaced by a new type of migration, aimed at uniting families. Thus the question inevitably arises: who stays at home and how do they cope?

The development of industrial parks began in the 1960s with the transformation of previous production systems and the technological change. Initially, the first industrial areas were developed spontaneously when positive externalities rose from the close spatial proximity of companies. Therefore, the producing plants started to build common infrastructure and a variety of special facilities within the industrial areas which resulted in the concentration of production and creating the first industrial parks. The industrial spatial structure has changed and taking the positive benefits of proximity in mind, the creation of industrial parks has become conscious.
This trend has reached the Central and Eastern European countries later, consequentially the first initiatives were realized at the beginning of the 1990s after the collapse of the soviet bloc. The post-socialist countries have tried to take over the methods and strategies used in Western European countries but due to the different economic, political, social backgrounds in these states diverse development dimensions can be observed in the case of industrial parks. In the present study, the authors will introduce a historical overview of industrial parks' development, the characterization of parks and the characteristics of certain park types. Moreover, the paper will review the main terminological information related to the parks. The parks will be examined in three Central and Eastern European countries (Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria), looking for similarities and differences between industrial parks in the listed states.

Local development has been always considered an important instrument in the renewal of the rural economy, society and settlements, but recent changes of rural areas led to the conceptual expansion of the term. Besides locality-based development, the significance of the novel concept of place-based development has also been recognised. Place-based development not only takes the local characteristics into account, but tries to harmonise the development processes of the different sectors and territorial levels. The core of place-based approach is the well-coordinated, multilateral and continuous communication between the actors and institutes from different territorial levels and different sectors. Our paper provides an overview of the concepts of locality-based and place based development, and investigates their applicability to the development of the Hungarian rural areas. The presented results of a survey which involved the experts in the Hungarian National Rural Network provide additional information about the Hungarian rural development and the necessity of place-based approach.

Different regional development patterns and processes have emerged in the Visegrad countries (Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia) since their accession into the European Union, in the past ten years. The reasons behind these different regional development trajectories mostly have been contributed quite rightly to the economic transformation processes where these post-socialist countries have to reorganize and to reconstruct their economies.
The aim of this paper is to highlight the possible linkages between the individual countries' particular central and territorial development institutional settings with the different regional development process trajectories: the two types of regional development systems in the Visegrad countries (centralized and decentralized) and the two main regional development processes (growing and non-growing regional disparities).

This article examines the evolution of systems of cities in the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland since 1950, and especially since the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 when Central and Eastern European cities started to experience the process of metropolisation. This period corresponds to an intense globalisation of the economy which has been characterised by some researchers as an emergence of a world urban system. While the metropolises of formerly industrialised countries had already been strongly interconnected on a macro-regional level, Central and Eastern European countries took on the unique approach of prioritising relations directly at an international level. In addition to its highly exacerbated characteristics, the metropolisation in Central and Eastern Europe has been taking place within a substantially shorter time period in relation to other countries. This article investigates how these phenomena might have influenced the configuration of today's urban systems.
After presenting the methodology used to reconstruct urban agglomerations since 1950 until now, we examine the evolution of the Czech, Hungarian and Polish systems of cities by using several national databases. By analysing the changes in urban hierarchy and new urban patterns, we can stress that after 1989 the metropolisation has rather contributed to raise the predominance of the capital city in the urban systems than to diminish inequalities between the cities.

The objective of the study is to point out, what kind of measurement methodologies and factor groups are used to determinate the depth of the spatial integration in the national and international scientific literature. Integration means in this sense the interconnection of several (spatial) units (Kulcsár-Rostás, 1989; Kovács, 2001; Kiss, 2005). One of the most widely interpreted types of the integration is the economic integration, which can be applied to enterprises and spatial units as well. This study focuses on the last one and examines it at three territorial levels, distinguishing global, supranational (among national states) and subnational levels. The possible measurement methods are significantly determined by the spatial levels. The paper makes some suggestions for the possible measurement method in CentralEuropean context.

The main objective of this paper is to reveal the crucial economic and social factors determining the lack of social well-being in two disadvantaged micro-regions of different geographical locations in Hungary, and to summarize the similarities and differences between them. The study also compares the two analysed cases in terms of subjective well-being, as well as indicators of micro-regions and urban areas located in the same county in order to demonstrate the inter- and intraregional differences. According to the hypothesis, basically the east-west determined spatial inequalities of objective social well-being emerge also in connection with subjective well-being issues. The results are based on an empirical research using qualitative and quantitative methods conducted in 2014.

The authors of this study examined the destination image of Lake Balaton which region is one of the top tourist destinations in Hungary. The empirical research was designed to obtain answers to two questions: whether the image of the region well recognizable and the much-discussed "Balaton-brand" could be formed? Research results indicate the different views about the region's image of the various stakeholders, the lack of effective communication between tourism operators and those professionals are not sufficiently aware of tourists' views.
The touristic region of Balaton has had an important role in the tourism of Hungary and the tourism supply of the region has undergone a huge transformation in the past period. In spite of these positive changes the main characteristic of the Balaton is still the shortness of its high season which is characterized by bathing in the lake. To enhance competitiveness, apart from broadening complex services it is necessary to introduce a clear Balaton brand and image on both internal and international markets.

The Ministry of Rural Development in Hungary has set the goal of restoring the competitiveness of the domestic food industry among many others. They would like to contribute to the stable financing by facilitating borrowing loans as well as export financing the enterprises in the food industry. For the period between 2014 and 2020, 500 billion HUF subsidies have been allocated for the technical and technological modernization of businesses, for the increase of input efficiency as well as for research and development and trainings and consultancy. In order to do so it is essential to encourage the demand for Hungarian food products besides insuring workforce with up-to-date expertise and the supportive economic environment. The research mentions consumption figures based on food balances where the balances calculated for various food groups include food products and beverages converted into ingredients. The development of food consumption is negatively affected by the economic recession, the weather influencing cultivation significantly as well as the fall in consumption from private farming. Enterprises put great emphasis on prevention and on the good physical and mental condition of their colleagues with such organization of work that focuses on health since work can be more efficient by this means. The quality of the work environment influences the health condition both directly and indirectly. In case of micro- and small enterprises cafeteria plans as well as the visible elements of corporate culture are much more revealed thus contributing to more health-conscious food consumption in Zala County. In addition to the agricultural support of the sale of domestic food products, the government could stimulate the manufacturing of healthy products of local small-scale producers indirectly by reducing VAT for instance.

The aim of the research is to reveal the characteristics of one of Hungary's most important touristic destination, the Lake Balaton Resort Area, with special respect to what sort of influence on local businesses foreign-owned commercial supermarket chains have. The research involves mapping transformed businesses, as well as searching for the answer to how the tendency of the periods of high season and the changing of the visitors' segments affect catering industry. In addition to this, the study draws a comparison between the motivation of setting up businesses and the year of their launch.
In the Lake Balaton Resort Area, which serves as the locality of the particular research, it can be observed that the importance of the service industry is on the increase, which ensures the possibility of an alternative source of income to the local inhabitants. In the first place, it directly affects the labour force, driven out of the primary sector jobs, who are on the verge of having the service industry as the only chance to get a job. The study is aimed at commercial concentration and the changing of the catering industry, besides the breakdown of the region's businesses into separate branches. The main question of the examination is whether the economic priority of tourism may be sufficient enough in the future to kick-start the development of this specific rural region, or further diversification of branches should be required in the interest of development.
While mapping the characteristics of the layers of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises, we have been looking for the answer to how economic-sociological processes that are present in the Lake Balaton Resort Area influence their successfulness.
The development of tourist destinations, the improvement of living standards and the enhancement of the Balaton identity can be supported by the self-employment and creating jobs. To achieve that, it is inevitable for the local inhabitants to pool their interests and co-operate.

The economic role of financial services in the national economy is unquestionable, so the examination of these services is a relevant theme during the survey of the state of a region, county or other territorial unit. In this study we examine an unofficial administrative region which is an important geographical area in the development programme of the EU (Hungary-Croatia IPA Cross-border Programme).
The aim of this paper is the introduction of some indicators of bank networks in Croatia and Hungary especially their joint border region, such as availability, financial exclusion, and economic share of financial services. We evaluate these indicators according to the international standards and best practices.

The Russian-Ukrainian crisis is one of the most important issues of the beginning of the 21st century, from regional and global aspects as well. This paper analyses the crisis from geopolitical aspects, and tries to concentrate on the reasons behind the events and the global perspectives.
The study reveals why the Ukrainian question is in the focus of Russian interest, and what led to the crisis. Concerning geopolitics, starting from the point of view of Sir Halford John Mackinder, placing the theory of the Heartland to the 21st century, the study gives a complete picture about the situation of the Eurasian chessboard in terms of Ukraine and Russia. The authors attempt to provide comprehensive analysis of the crisis, keeping in mind the spheres of interests of Russia, Ukraine, the U.S. and the European Union.

Nowadays an important question is how to use the limited resources available in the most efficient and sustainable way. The assessment of development policy interventions and the question of successful absorption of development funds shifted clearly towards stronger enforcement of the aspects efficiency and effectiveness. There is clearly a need for an integrated approach to deliver an effective and sustainable response. The question is how the new territorial development tools - established by the new cohesion policy regulation for the coming programming period - can fit in these conditions, how can they help to achieve the common goals and response to the integrated approach. Cooperation and in-depth knowledge is required for stakeholders to make use of the new tools in an integrated manner.

We made a layered questionnaire survey in 2004-2005. We wanted to find the answer to the following questions: What aspects do Hungarian citizens prefer when choosing their place of residence? What characteristics, advantages and disadvantages do they use to describe the settlement types of different size? Which Hungarian settlements are considered competitive by the respondents and why? Which are the settlements that the stakeholders see as real centres of gravity? How much are the respondents willing to move to another settlement? In the light of the results, we repeated our survey of the population in 2012-2013, allowing thereby the comprehensive evaluation of a period of almost ten years. In this phase of data recording we used the method of a layered questionnaire survey again, in which it was one thousand private persons again who responded to our questions.

The past two decades have brought basic changes in the whole Balkan Peninsula, where spatial structures and settlement network were not devoid of changes either. Due to the change of the economic, political and social regime and the new borders spatial structures became differentiated along new factors. Cooperation programs of the Euro-Atlantic integration hold many new challenges and opportunities. Historical and political literature studying the single countries' transformation is large and far reaching, however, a settlement network and spatial structure focused overview has been, so far, missing from the range of researches. The aim of this study is to examine the urban features and the spatial transition of the Balkan states.

The objective of the present research was to identify the role of health tourism in the competitiveness of three Hungarian counties (Baranya, Somogy and Zala) of the Croatian-Hungarian border area. The key factors of success and criteria for sustainability were to be found in order to help the local decision-makers in their attempts to create a strategy for the development of health tourism. As a part of a large research project the current paper describes the results of a qualitative survey of 21 interviews with mayors, spa managers, and hotel managers, to represent general tourism supply to identify the impacts of health tourism developments on the settlement, the economic and social effects on the local population.
The selection of interviewees was done to ensure, that successful, average, and not really successful spa towns were represented among the locations. Among the possible locations in counties Zala, Somogy and Baranya the interviews were finally conducted in Hévíz, Zalaszentgrót, Nagyatád, Marcali, Harkány and Szigetvár, and, to include a location where planned spa development was not implemented, in the village Somogysámson. Besides, the president of the Hungarian Baths' Association was interviewed, who used to be the director of the Szent András Rheumatic Hospital in Hévíz for a long time. Due to some of the interviewees' non-availability two additional locations, Letenye and Kehidakustány, were also included to complete the list of interviews. An interview was conducted with the mayor of Somogysámson about an unimplemented spa development plan.
The main findings of the research underlined that the number of domestic tourists, and within this wellness tourists, is very low compared to the opportunities. For this reason the further development of domestic tourism is of crucial importance. The reasons for that are partly the prevailing habits, the lack of tourism culture, the lack of recreation culture, and financial difficulties.
The successful, progressive spas are those that have continued their development activities relying on their natural endowments, and responding with their innovations to the current expectations of the market and the environment. They have improved their medical treatments, introduced new machinery and technology, built new sight and fun components in the spa. Financial efficiency was achieved by those who were able to attract a sustainable number of visitors. According to the international literature an attraction with a visitor-centre like establishment (a museum, a fun park, a spa, etc.) will be very profitable after it reached 1 million visitors a year in terms of services sold.
A small spa may be financially viable, if the capacities are well designed and the construction responds to the services demanded, as the example of Nagyatád shows.
An adequate spa town image would definitely be needed for the further development of spas. Balatonfüred and Héviz are the only spas that have started to establish a real spa image in Hungary.
The other important component should be the complete documentation for the patients and the treatments in spas and spa hotels, and the same is valid for wellness and fitness. The client should be informed about the impacts of the treatment on the patient's condition.
The spas that are

The SPF Network project supported by EU's IPA program want to point out that Vojvodina and the Southern Great Plain are territories strongly depending on agriculture and food industry, the rise of which regions could be based only on cooperation between the two countries, primarily in the fields of agriculture and food industry.
The Project shows that relations between the two countries, the two observed regions are still very limited in this sector of the economy, while there are so much the potentials still not capitalised.
The aim of this Project is to present sectoral characteristics of the two regions and the conditions by which cooperation could be established between them.

When we speak about sustainability there is a sector of industry that deserves attention because of its increasing economic weight in the past decades, the rising number of stakeholders and the widening circle of service providers. This sector is the tourism industry, which has an impact not only on the economy of the visited country but also on the social, cultural and environmental relations, so if we speak about sustainability, we can not ignore its role and effect. Tourism has become so a part of sustainable development, which can be conduced through the application of the Tourism Destination Management (TDM) all over the world (Ritchie, Crouch, 2003, p. 45).
What do we actually mean by the sustainability of tourism? What methodology and what kind of tools are available to transfer them into parctice? How does it operate in one of the most important holiday regions in Hungary, in the Balaton region that is the region of the largest sweet water lake in Central Europe at the same time? In this study the authors are trying to find answers for these questions by introducing the first steps of the Balaton region and the environment protection practice in one of the settlements and the micro-regional efforts of a local nature protection civil organization for the sake of sustainability.

The existence of market (so the labour market) forms the natural systematic environment that ensures improving economic effectiveness. Over developing market economy the number of employees has been decreasing in every former socialist country, as a natural consequence. With the ceasing of the former socio-economic order - which ignored economic rationality, capital accumulation, productivity and national/international competitiveness - many unreasonable jobs have disappeared. The market is effectively sanctioning the phenomenon of latent unemployment, making it to serve profit earning. Transition to market economy is painful, causing huge transitional costs and requires waiver from the inhabitants.
Employment and unemployment (together with its current economic and social consequences) are indicators of the process, dynamics and quality of transition. Transitional countries on the Balkans first experienced the emerging decrease of production at the beginning of the 1990's. National income per capita automatically reordered the ranking of these countries. The number of employees in private companies (especially in micro companies) is constantly increasing, while the number of those in state-owned economic subjects is slowly but continuously decreasing. Flexible forms of employment (part-time job, self-employment etc.) are essentially not present in Serbian labour market.
The phenomenon of emigration and black economy are the following processes in these transformations. The past twenty years can be characterized by intensive emigration of the population mainly towards welfare states (temporarily employed abroad, brain drain, brain flight) due to problems of unemployment, low wages, and economic and political crisis. According to estimates there are 2.5 million (others say four million) Serbians or people with Serbian origins who live outside of Serbia. This can be explained either by development level of the region, its regional identity or autonomy. Maybe the biggest challenge for employment policy in transition countries is the problem of black economy. According to the World Bank's report from 2006 43% of all employees are in the non-official sector, and 26.7% of people are illegally employed at employers.
One example of inequality in Serbia is discrimination in the world of work based on gender. It can be also found ethnic-based inequalities at the labour market of Serbia. There is also inequality based on the place of origin (village or town) concerning willingness for further training, and in employment. Refugees have worsened the problem of unequal opportunities since their official number reached 303,769 in 2007, while 27.9% of them were unemployed.
In an European comparison the employment rate of active population in Serbia (51%) is low, otherwise the unemployment rate is very high in region of neighboring countries (16%). Focus on the group of unemployed, there is a huge proportion of people with secondary school qualifications and young people. About 50% of all unemployed are form the active population younger than 34. In 2009 loss of employment was the most drastic in the following business sectors: processing industry 23%, trade 23%, education 15%, real estate 9%, construction 6%, transport and catering industry 4-4%.
Examples from the European

The intensity of the cooperation beyond borders in Central-Europe and South-East-Europe is lower than in Western-Europe because the nationalizing of the states and the homogenization processes are barriers in front of the developing of the border regions. European territorial cooperation is not possible without decentralisation. The European Union has established a new legal instrument, a new form of cooperation of the European territorial cooperation, namely European Groupings of Territorial Cooperation (2007-13; Objective 3, Regulation 1082/2006/EC). It substantially contributes to European integration and to implementation of cross-border strategies. Furthermore, it brings EU policies closer to people; it means European, political, institutional and socio-cultural added value. Successfully strengthened territorial cooperation needs an appropriate legislative framework in terms of local governance, local administrative reforms and capacity building. To overcome obstacles and barriers created by borders due to national law and the different administrative structures and competences is the willingness of local and regional authorities.
Vojvodina has a special location among the regions of Carpathian Basin. Due to its historical, ethnic, cultural and economic heritage, Vojvodina is one of the most valuable towards European Union, so called "gate" of Serbia. The aim of the study is to present the position and possibilities of Vojvodina in the European territorial cooperation from two aspects:
* the new modes of governance, especially the territorial governance, during the core competences of different administrative levels of the European territorial cohesion, taking into account the perspectives of Europeanization (decentralisation and regionalisation) in a heterogenic Union.
* the institutionalisation and the future of the DKMT Euroregion and the Banat-Triplex Confinium EGTC from the aspect Vojvodina, because these co-operations are significant component of the European integration process.
In terms of institutional development the cross-border co-operation calls for partnership and high level of cooperation on behalf of participants and stakeholders that stems from the acceptance and practical adaptation of the principles of multi-level governance and good local governance. EGTCs are generally established to bring together authorities from different administrative levels, including regions, communities or municipalities to act together as one. Through the creation of this legal framework, partners from different countries and different administrative levels can have one common voice in regional, national or international settings and take joint decisions. The conditions of the multi-level governing are primarily determined by the states thus these conditions should be provided by the countries for the local and regional governments to make them possible to join to the European integration and decision-making processes. The conditions of the multi-level governing are primarily determined by the states thus these conditions should be provided by the countries for the local and regional governments to make them possible to join to the European integration and decision-making processes.

In my study I investigate the spatial characteristics of applications received during a five year period between 2007-2011 by National Cultural Fund's Public Education College.
In the recent study, within my research topic I deal especially with the tendering activity and effectiveness of settlements populated by Hungarians beyond the border, mainly based on quantitative data.
Considering the five-year period - according to my hypothesis - the tendering activity has become one method of "staying alive" to the cultural institutions and organizations. However, the proposal writing potential and innovative capacity, which is necessary for efficient resource acquisition, is not necessarily accessible everywhere, especially in small communities and from several aspects disadvantaged regions.
Regarding Serbia, exploring these experiences may help calling in EU funds.

In Hungary health consciousness relates to people's will and their financial and social circumstances. At present the health care system offers consumers the opportunity for recovery and prevention both in private and public health facilities. Due to financing problems there is a great difference between the two types; health care professionals do their best to overcome difficulties, but in many cases mere expertise is not enough. Long waiting times and services unsubsidised by health funds try the patience of both the taxpayers and the medical personnel. Stress, the accelerated lifestyle and the economic situation can equally be blamed for the development of endemic diseases. However, it is more important to find out what the people behind the numbers want; what they do to maintain their health or to get better regardless of/depending on their financial conditions and what patients and doctors expect from the health care system. We have carried out a residents' survey on health consciousness in Nagykanizsa and analysed the demand and supply relations in order to demonstrate how much satisfied the consumers and health workers are with the health care system. The research included 500 local residents and 21 health service employees. The sample represents the respondents by age and sex. The questions covered the area of health maintenance, health service, eating habits and the efficiency of information.

In this study, the authors examine the innovation performance and the internal and external factors that influence innovation in the local region of Zala County (NUTS3). The aim of the empirical research is to determine the performance of companies with the help of variables of the innovation systems and as a result the categorization of companies can be carried out. Further aims are to study the dynamics of the internal factors of innovation in a company and also to investigate the demand and supply. According to the research results, the innovation performance of small and medium sized businesses (SMBs - KKV) strongly depend on the innovation activities of four areas (product-, process-, organizational and marketing innovation) influenced by the internal innovation system of a company and the quality of various innovation services.

The study summarizes the different definitions of migration, their explanations, and it surveys numerous theories concerning the topic. As some theories state, migration is more characteristic for young generations, since their psychical burdens are fewer in number, and the expected added value is higher. In our research we projected these theories on graduate students at J Selye University and examined their validity. We carried out a questionnaire survey to see how graduate students imagine their future, what opportunities they see on the labor market and to what extent they are willing to work abroad. We also examined which countries they would prefer to go to and for how long they were planning to stay abroad. Differences in migration intentions according to sex, qualification and place of residence were also pointed out and explained.
In the framework of our research we presumed the following about graduate students at the two biggest faculties of J Selye University:
* The majority of graduate students would like to work abroad at some point in the future.
* The neighbouring countries and English speaking countries would be popular destinations to find employment, the latter ones being popular for the reason of learning the language.
* Graduate students intend to have a long-term stay abroad, with the majority planning to stay abroad for more than five years.
* Graduate students would like to get a job in their own field in order to gain experience.
* Respondents would claim that there are few opportunities to succeed on the labour market at the place of their residence.

Agro - tourism creates a basis for diversification of agricultural activities and for the rural development at all. In the Czech Republic there are about 500 farms oriented on agro - tourism. The competitiveness of the agricultural sector in Europe is supported by the Common Agricultural Policy also in the programming period 2007 - 2013. The activities for raising the global competitive advantages of European farmers are mainly based on the EAFRD Programme. In the Czech Republic the EAFRD implementation connected with the Rural Development Plan for the period 2007 - 2013 contents also the Diversification of agricultural activities in its Axis III. The main aim of this axis is an emphasis on increasing economic growth, creating new job opportunities and sustainable economic development in rural areas. The diversification means here the improvement of used technologies (but not the raising of production), the start of finalizing food on farms, the offer of local goods, or the providing of services like agro - tourism.
The article deals also with the question how will be this programme used in the South Bohemian Region. The analyses for this research work were carried out in the time period of May 2007 - September 2007 and they will show which activities will be preferred by the farmers, which amount of money will the farmers like to use from the programme in the budget period 2007 - 2013, and which support would they like to get from the regional authorities like the Regional Agrarian Chamber with its advisors.