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The article deals with current challenges for regional development and their impact as causes of threats to economic security. Economic security is seen as a complex multilevel system, the formation of which occurs at various levels of economy's hierarchy: the state level, an economic sector, an industry (economic activity), a region, a business enterprise, a city, a town, a village, a local territorial community, a person. It is determined that a region's internal and external environment is the key factor of its economic security. The assessment, which was carried out, enables to establish the following characteristics: structural imbalances, a gap between regional investing priorities and determined priorities, a break in the production chain, an asymmetry in technological development of regional industries, expansion of foreign companies on the domestic market, incompatibility between the system of institutions and the aims of social and economic development of regions.The research paper describes the current challenges for regional development, such as deepening of regional differences in creating tensions in regional labour markets; intensification of migration processes; growing differences in the intensity of structural changes; reducing foreign investment; institutional and fiscal decentralization; growing problems in organizing and financing social services; deepening asymmetry in the development of cross-border infrastructure, which requires a system of protection against increasing threats to economic security.A range of methodological approaches to assessing the level of economic security is generalized. A set of quantitative and qualitative indicators is suggested for evaluating the results of security assurance activities at all levels of the hierarchy: a region, a territorial community, a business enterprise, a person.The priority areas of administrative activity designed to prevent threats to economic security are identified. Given the current challenges, these priority areas include: structural reform of the economy, an increasing backbone role of state-owned entrepreneurship, inter-regional and inter-municipal cooperation, modernization of social safety in terms of personal security, strengthening safety of entrepreneurship, reinforcement of security of local communities under conditions of political, administrative, financial, fiscal, economic and environmental decentralization.The main characteristics of each area are pointed out. Further research studies are to be undertaken to empirically examine the results of these measures and identify barriers for institutional assurance of economic security.

Tourism plays an important role in Europe, and specifically in Bulgaria, and
it makes a considerable contribution to employment and regional development.
Usually, tourism is among the sectors which are used for introduction and
application of different government measures and initiatives which aim at
increase of employment. In spite of the commitment of public institutions in
Bulgaria to stimulate tourism, as a form of sustainable development,
employment and other economic activities, we still find strong disproportions
in infra- and super-structure with tourism development being highly
concentrated on the Black sea coast. The aim of this paper was to define the
main challenges for regional employment with respect to the specifics of the
labor market requirements for new skills and competences, and bridging of the
gap between the educational curricula and market demand.

This article examines the functioning of Regional Development Agencies (DAs) in Turkey from a policy instruments approach with a view to uncovering their intended and unintended consequences for regional governance. The policy instruments approach challenges the functionalist view that instruments are merely technical and neutral devices for realizing policy aims in the most effective way. Instead, the article shows that as policy instruments, the DAs are highly political with important political consequences. The article is based on original data collected and generated from an extensive review of official documents and reports and semi-structured interviews with local stakeholders in six different regions conducted between 2011 and 2014. On the basis of the findings, the article argues that the DAs in Turkey lack the capacity to act as focal points for empowerment of sub-national actors and to foster intra-regional networks between public and private sectors and civil society. Findings show that there is lack of collaboration both between and among different groups of local and those of central actors within the decision-making and implementation stages of the policy cycle and that local actors perceive the DAs as devices for accomplishing their own objectives rather than as partnerships for producing new possibilities of development. These findings indicate that the DAs are far from mobilizing endogenous growth capacities, greatly hindering them from becoming engines of development in their regions. Overall, the DAs are largely failing to manage multiscalar relations of governance for the purpose of promoting regional development. ; Publisher's Version

Vlora has great potential for regional development. Tourism can be as a catalyst for theeconomic growth but still have many challenges for sustainable tourism regionaldevelopment. Regional development is one ofthe most important dimensions and key ofEU policy, which is designedto: ensure convergence between the different member statesand regions; ensure regional competitiveness and employment;ensure territorialcooperation. Vlora has all the potential to bean attractive tourismdestination. Resourcesthat it can use to create its distinctive image for tourists are numerous. Across geography,which has spread Vlora region, there are monuments, archaeological item and rare naturalmonuments, natural sites and attractions centuries. Way to understand these apparentlyalready clarified is joining with the tourism environment. Return tourism potential in realestate assets for the rapid development andprosperity of the region, is one of theobjectives with which to measure the role of state institutions, businesses, investitures andpolicies that support, promote, stimulate and develop the sector oh tourism. Tourismdevelopment is facing many challenges related to development and the control urbanity,decentralization process, thegeographical distribution of tourism, exploitation of allresources and tourist potential, the protection of natural and cultural heritage.

International audience ; The paper addresses specific issues of the local governance in its transition to the knowledge society and the web based processes. The innovative e-Governance approach creates a new regional framework for changing the process of the sustainable strategy design and implementation, from a system-oriented to an actor-driven one, focusing on the development of two ways online channels for supporting the pro-active citizens' behavior and their involvement in the consultation and decisional processes. The solution, based on web 2.0 technologies, integrates e-Knowledge, e-Consultation and e-Voting tools in a regional portal, facilitating the bottom-up decision-making processes. The regional virtual portal provides simultaneously a quantitative approach represented by the information concerning the regional opportunities and possible evolution trends, based on advanced modeling tools and set of indicators, and, complementary, a qualitative approach using various tools for the direct expression of the specific actors' opinions, creating a holistic image on the regional development.

The paper is based on an institutional survey in Austria. The aim of the survey was to identify different types of regional institutions - traditional versus new innovative institutions. The main research focus concentrated on new challenges in regional development processes resulting from the EU-strategy to foster sustainable regional development in the member states. As a consequence the question of the relevance of completely new types of institutions arises on the one hand. These new types are directly linked to the EU structural fund policy, e.g. LEADER+ manager, EU regional manager. With respect to this focus these institutions mainly concentrate on EU programmes and initiatives. On the other hand the traditional institutions have their specific focus on e.g. tourism, economic development etc. not necessarily with any direct link to EU-programmes. Therefore this contribution starts with a general institutional analysis (i.e. organisational attributes, activity profiles, regional embeddedness, position in the regional stakeholder network, etc.) to find differences between traditional and new innovative institutions. Based on these attributes we will present the institutional landscape in Austrian regions. This landscape consists of the above mentioned traditional and the new innovative institutions. Are these co-existing institutions able to concentrate the top-down (i.e. regional policy) and the bottom-up (i.e. project initiatives) interests in order to foster sustainable regional initiatives' For answering this question we haven chosen several case-studies in different Austrian regions. This case study analysis will be presented as follows: * Strengths and weaknesses of different institutional settings (e.g. various competing institutions versus one strong institution) * Comparison of strategic decisions in the case study regions * Is there any ideal solution identifiable for other regions'