INNOVATION ABILITY OF KOŠICE AND PREŠOV SELF-GOVERNING REGIONS

Since the transition to a market economy, the countries of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE countries) have suffered from severe serious economic and employment-related problems. That is valid fully for Slovakia, one of the EU candidate countries, comparing to western EU countries. After becoming member of EU, economy of Slovakia will face very strong competition with traditional market economies. Almost all macroeconomic indicators show still a big gap between economic performance of Slovakia and EU 15 countries. The European Union declares itself as the union of regions – and the gap is even more visible at a regional level, especially when considering Eastern part of Slovakia. Western part of Slovakia reaches much better results in economic performance than Eastern part of Slovakia, consisting of Košice and Prešov self-governing regions (SGR). That clearly indicates that Western part of Slovakia is evidently better prepared for entering EU and also it is much more competitive