SERVICES OF GENERAL ECONOMIC INTEREST AND APPLICATION OF COMPETITION RULES

In terms of Services of general economic interest (SGEI), there is generated a number of questions related to the nature of these activities and institutions providing them. In this paper, we analyze the application of the competition rules on the example of the public health insurance in Slovakia. We describe the SGEI, their legislation framework in the EU and in Slovakia and following the European case -law we analyze the relevant factors, which need to be deliberated by determining the possibility of the competition. In conclusion, in spite of the fact that competition authorities in the Slovak Republic, the Czech Republic and the European Commission concluded that the public health insurance does not fall under the application of the competition rules, we see the opportunity for existing competition, although it is marginal, and therefore this case should not be concluded defmitively, but monitored and or reviewed.