The regions of Czechia are territorial administrative units which, since 1 January 2000, form fourteen higher-level self-governing territorial units: thirteen regions and the territory of the Capital City of Prague. They were created on the basis of Constitutional Act No. 347/1997 Coll.[1].
History of the regional system
According to the Czech Statistical Office, the regions had a structure similar to today's as early as the middle of the 19th century. After their abolition in 1867 and 1868, the administrative division of the state rested on districts and lands until 1948[1].
In 1949 the lands were abolished and, for the first time since 1868, a regional system returned. Thirteen regions were created, with Prague as a separate territorial unit. In the territorial reform of 1960, the existing regions and districts were replaced by seven new regions and a separate territory of the capital. According to the statistical office, regions defined in this way exist to this day[1].
Regions since 2000
On 1 January 2000 thirteen new regions came into being, and Prague formed the fourteenth unit. Their seats are the same as the seats of the regions valid from 1949 to 1960, and the names were derived from these seats as well, with the exception of the Central Bohemian Region. In the European Union classification of statistical territorial units they correspond to the NUTS 3 level. Since 2000 the country has therefore contained side by side the regions under the 1960 law and the new regions defined by the constitutional act of 1997[1].
At the end of 2015 the Ministry of the Interior, on the recommendation of the Government Council for Public Administration, set up a working group intended to prepare proposals for a new administrative division of the state for the government[1].
Changes of borders and names
At the request of the municipalities, twenty-five municipalities moved in 2005 from the Vysočina Region to the South Moravian Region, and three municipalities from the Moravian-Silesian Region to the Olomouc Region. Further border adjustments took place in 2016, when the Brdy military district was abolished and the borders of four military districts were determined. The change concerned the pairs of regions Central Bohemian and Plzeň, Karlovy Vary and Ústí nad Labem, South Moravian and Olomouc, and also Olomouc and Moravian-Silesian[1].
In 2001 four regions were renamed. The Brněnský kraj is now called South Moravian, the Budějovický kraj was replaced by South Bohemian, and the Ostravský kraj by Moravian-Silesian. The Jihlavský kraj received the name Vysočina and in 2011 was renamed Vysočina Region[1].
Police and the division by regions
The territorial division by regions was also reflected in the organisation of the Police of the Czech Republic. The existing eight regional directorates were to change to fourteen as of 1 January 2010, corresponding to the administrative division of the country. For example, the directorate of the Západočeský kraj was divided into the directorates of the Karlovy Vary Region and the Plzeň Region, that of the Severočeský kraj into the directorates of the Liberec Region and the Ústí nad Labem Region, and that of the Východočeský kraj into the directorates of the Pardubice Region and the Hradec Králové Region[2].
Exhibition on changing borders
On 17 October 2018 the Ministry of the Interior held in Prague a conference and the opening of a map exhibition titled "100 Years of Changing Borders of Our Regions". The events took place as part of the celebrations of one hundred years since the founding of Czechoslovakia. The conference dealt with how the territorial administrative division of the state developed in the past and what it looks like now. The exhibition was followed by a travelling display, which was to be freely accessible to the public and gradually appear in the individual regions[3].