ABSTRACT
The ‘heart of Europe’ is an often used, but ambiguous term to characterise a central place in the continent of Europe. There are several cities that could claim to be at the heart of Europe, for example, Prague, Vienna, Bratislava, Munich, Krakow, Dresden. Often the term is used (or misused) for marketing purposes, as other cities such as Paris or Brussels also make the claim, although this may come from defining the heart as an economic, historical, cultural or political core of Europe. However, even when considered from a geographical point of view, there is an ongoing discussion about the geographic centre of Europe. The candidates, depending on how it is measured or defined, range from Dresden at the western side of Germany to Lithuania, Estonia, Belarus or Romania on the Eastern side. Self-proclaimed centres, for example, lie somewhere close to the cities of Vienna and Bratislava, and with some logic claim the term Central Europe to characterise their geographical position. A new initiative, ‘Centrope’, provides some support for that claim, declaring itself as being strategically located at the heart of the ‘New Europe’. The ‘Centrope’ region brings together neighbouring areas of Austria, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary (Fig. 1), arguing that it is a heterogeneous structural region (Palme and Feldkircher, 2006; Schuh and Schuster, 2006). Although the idea seems promising at first sight, only Bratislava, Lower Austria and Vienna are prosperous parts of ‘Centrope’; the other areas, Burgenland, West Transdanubia and South Moravia have a much lower economic performance (see Table 1). The first part of this chapter, within the context of the ‘Centrope’ region, focuses on the cities of Vienna and Bratislava, and concentrates on Bratislava, where the most interesting developments may be observed. The Centrope Region – spatial scheme. https://s3-euw1-ap-pe-df-pch-content-public-p.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/9781315811871/89c920cd-4d36-4c46-831a-a5740793a6f5/content/fig7_1_C.jpg" xmlns:xlink="https://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"/> Source: Hudec and Urbančíková GDP per capita in the Sub-Regions of Centrope (EU-25=100)
|
Centrope area |
GDP per capita as a percentage of the EU 25 * |
|---|---|
|
Vienna |
172.9 |
|
Bratislava |
119.7 |
|
Lower Austria |
97.5 |
|
Burgenland |
81.5 |
|
West Transdanubia |
59.8 |
|
South Moravia |
56.9 |
Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita in Purchasing Power Standards (PPS): The volume index of GDP per capita in PPS is expressed in relation to the European Union (EU) average set equal to 100.
Source: Eurostat and calculations in Palme, Feldkircher (2006)