THE IMPACT OF THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE EUROPEAN UNION STRUCTURAL FUNDS IN THE SLOVAK REPUBLIC IN COMPARISON WITH V4 COUNTRIES
THE IMPACT OF THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE EUROPEAN UNION STRUCTURAL FUNDS IN THE SLOVAK REPUBLIC IN COMPARISON WITH V4 COUNTRIES

Summary/Abstract: The European Union's Structural Funds are a key instrument for reducing the disparities between its regions. The Slovak Republic, as well as other countries of the V4, has been eligible to implement these funds since joining the EU in 2004. This paper focuses on the implementation of the Structural Funds in the V4 countries in the 2007-2013 programming period. We have searched this programming period as it was the first period since the accession of countries to the EU in which they benefited from this support throughout its whole duration. The ability to spend EU funds effectively has a major impact on the economies of countries, as these resources make up the bulk of public investment. In this paper, we were working with secondary data using standard scientific methods of quantitative research as well as descriptive statistics. The results of our research have shown that the level of effectiveness of the implementation of EU allocated funds varies in the V4 countries in 2007 – 2013, while the effectiveness of some key indicators in the Slovak Republic was the worst among the V4 countries. We have also found that in terms of selected key socio-economic indicators in the period under review, such as unemployment rate, the Slovak Republic has improved least within the V4 countries.

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