FINANCIAL ASSUMPTIONS OF SLOVAK MUNICIPALITIES FOR THEIR ACTIVE PARTICIPATION IN REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT

Local self-government, represented by municipalities, is not only obliged to ensure all competencies set by legislation, whether original or transferred, but also to play an increasingly important role in the economic development of entrusted territory. One of a key challenge of the municipalities is also to act as an activator of development, either independently by using their own financial resources or in cooperation with potential investors who want to start new, whether social or economic activities in the respective area. Based on the published studies, the authors looked for suitable indicators to evaluate the financial conditions of Slovak municipalities to participate actively in the regional development of a particular region. They evaluated financial data of municipalities not only from the perspective of eight Slovak regions, but also in terms of size categories of municipalities, since they want to find out, how individual size categories of municipalities contribute to the healthy and viable financial condition of considered regions. In terms of analysis, a high degree of territorial fragmentation can be observed in Slovakia, which in the case of small size categories of municipalities (up to 3,000 inhabitants) negatively affects their ability to participate in regional development, because they have worse financial and property conditions. The athours ealuate quantitative financial and demographic data on Slovak municipalities for the period between 2014 and 2018, which they obtained from the Slovak DataCentrum and Ineko websites.