Documents Slovakia 236 results

"In response to the Covid-19 pandemic, the European Council agreed to provide major financial support to Member States. Drawing on a combination of the EU's long-term budget (2021–2027) and an additional temporary support system known as ‘NextGenerationEU' (NGEU), the EU has been providing funds to help Member States with the fall-out from the Covid-19 crisis. The so-called ‘Recovery and Resilience Facility' (RRF), at the core of the NGEU, provides financial support to Member States, notably through a combination of grants and loans (European Parliament and Council of the EU 2021). Resources made available through the RRF amount to 672.5 billion euros (360 billion euros in loans and 312.5 billion euros in grants – in 2018 prices).

To access the RRF funds, Member States submitted detailed national Recovery and Resilience Plans (RRPs), in which they set out reforms and investments to be completed by 2026. In particular, RRPs are supposed to identify measures in policy areas of European relevance, structured in six pillars, deemed as key to achieving recovery from the Covid-19 crisis and to enhancing the long-term resilience of the EU and of its Member States (European Parliament and Council of the EU 2021: recital 10): (i) green transition; (ii) digital transformation; (iii) smart, sustainable and inclusive growth; (iv) social and territorial cohesion; (v) health, and economic, social and institutional resilience; and (vi) policies for the next generation, children and young people. In order to assess the adequacy of the RRPs, a set of criteria have been established, including their contribution to the green and digital transitions and to the implementation of the European Pillar of Social Rights (EPSR), as well as their consistency with the European Semester Country-specific Recommendations (CSRs) which the Member States received in previous years (European Parliament and Council of the EU 2021: recital 42).

Reforms and investments linked to the RRF's ‘social and territorial cohesion' pillar are expected to help strengthen social dialogue in the Member States (European Parliament and Council of the EU 2021: recital 14); more generally, in drafting their RRPs, the Member States have been asked to report on how they conducted consultations with relevant national stakeholders, including the social partners and civil society organisations."

"The central question of the presented scientific monograph comparison of the party Czech, Hungarian and Slovak party systems is the identification of the affinity of the Slovak party system to the Hungarian and Czech party systems. The legitimacy of the question is because Slovak political parties as organized political groups began their activities in the period shortly after the Austro-Hungarian Compromise in 1867. Of them, only the Slovak National Party (SNS) was the only one that was not until the beginning of the 1st Czechoslovak Republic organizationally independent. More precisely, it did not form any partnerships with Hungarian or foreign political parties, for example by merging or creating electoral coalitions. During the period of Hungary, the oldest Slovak political party chose a fundamentally different political strategy, such as people or socialists, who first gained political experience in all-Hungarian political parties – the Catholic People's Party and the Social Democratic Party of Hungary. The Slovak social democrats gradually tried to achieve their organizational independence only at the beginning of the 20th century, but without success. After a short existence, they rejoined the Social Democratic Party of Hungary. The Slovak People's party worked towards political independence for a longer time. From the end of 1905, the so-called the Catholic wing of the Slovak National Party. They did not create their own party until shortly before the World War I in 1913. ...

"In 1991, the unemployment rate in Slovakia increased from almost zero to twelve per cent. Originally the high level of unemployment was welcomed as a signal of economic restructuring. However, after eight years of transition there is still a doubledigit unemployment rate. This can no longer be attributed to the transitional restructuring process. In this situation, the Slovak authorities have started to pay more attention to active labour market policies as one of the means of decreasing the high unemployment rate. The system of active labour market policies (ALMP) in the Slovak Republic, originally created in 1991, has gone through several substantial reforms. After this learning-by-doing process, a new set of ALMP measures was introduced in 1997. This paper summarises the institutional framework of ALMPs in Slovakia and its development during the period of economic transition 1991-1996. The first section contains a general overview of the development of unemployment in Slovakia after 1991. In the second, the institutional framework of ALMPs is summarised and the two main programmes are described in more detail. The third section discusses the results of previous empirical studies dealing with the effectiveness of ALMP programmes in transitional economies. Finally, the role of the social partners, mainly the trade unions, is described in the fourth section. A detailed chronological development of basic ALMP programmes in Slovakia is presented in Appendix 1, while a technical Appendix 2 contains an estimation of the effectiveness of ALMP spending in the Slovak Republic."

"Self-employment is a new career that has been created in the course of the reforms in all the former communist countries. It is, indeed, the new way of working that is most symptomatic of the direction in which the countries are changing. This article aims to demonstrate that much can be learnt from the experiences of the self-employed, not just about the current characteristics of the new market economies, but also about their most likely future trajectories."

"The development of Slovakia's economy since 1989 has had a decisive influence on changes in the agricultural sector, which has yet to find an appropriate role within the national economy. The overall development of the economy has led to the formation of relationships of a higher quality between agriculture and the sectors dealing with inputs to and outputs from the agriculture industry. Changes in the commodities and the territorial orientation of foreign trade, as well as developments in the domestic foodstuffs market, have pressed the issue of raising the competitiveness of agricultural and food products. The issue is crucial not only in connection with the country's preparations for accession to the European Union, but also because of the impact it may have on the overall development of producers' and processors' revenues should the pre-accession period be longer than forecast. The working and living conditions of people employed in agriculture have been changing, as have general living conditions in rural Slovakia. This article examines the above-mentioned issues, using official statistical data, analyses and scientific literature, as well as so-called “soft data”, i.e. information only available to specialists who are not part of official government structures."

"The paper provides an overview of government and social partner responses. In describing responses, the main goal of this paper is to identify the dimensions that can help explain the variety of responses, but also their commonalities. The paper also aims at understanding the factors that may have promoted the activation of social dialogue over economic and social policies and broaden the role of collective bargaining and industrial relations, as opposed to unilateral interventions designed by national governments. The paper lays out an analytical framework based on the COVID impact in each country, national industrial relations institutions and the nature of the government in office. In this general framework, we observe how national industrial relations institutions play a key role in explaining the responses in terms of the level and quality of social dialogue and the role of collective bargaining. Particularly important has been the role of strong sectoral collective bargaining institutions, allowing sectoral actors to negotiate specific responses considering the impact and the needs of the sector."