The aim of the paper is to quantify changes in public finances in the countries of the Visegrad Group through the area of the magic triangle of public finances, with an emphasis on the years 2020 and 2021. Using mathematical and statistical methods, we found the absolute and relative primary values of the year-on-year changes in public revenues, public expenditures and public debt since 2016 and substituted in the formula for calculating the area of the magic triangle. We found that in the long term, the magic triangle in the Czech Republic and Poland shows the largest area. The disease of COVID-19 significantly affected the development of aggregate public finances, which was confirmed especially in 2020. In 2020, the area of the magic triangles decreased significantly from 44.8% (Hungary) to 60.2% (Poland). In 2021, all V4 countries will see an improvement in financial indicators and, at the same time, an increase in the area of the magic triangles of public finances, which signals the progress of the public finances situation.

We are enriching the debate on the indebtedness of self-governing regions with a scientific article that focuses on the effects of this phenomenum of the Czech Republic and the Slovak Republic as selected Central European countries. The main purpose of the article is to find out possible measures and solutions in the stabilisation of the financial security of self-governing regions in the surveyed countries. The research refers to the monitored period from the accession of both countries to the European Union in 2004 (data summarized in 2005) till 2022 when the final annual statistical data of the regional final accounts (referring to 2021) are available. Descriptive statistical method was used to express the development trends of indebtedness, represented by line graphs and tables. The data were aggregated for individual budget years in all self-governing regions, due to significant differences in the structure of fragmentation, the research results were interpreted through the indebtedness per inhabitant and the share of indebtedness to current income determined by the legal framework. Through the study of foreign and domestic scientific literature, possible preventive measures for reducing self-governing regions debt were proposed when using returnable funding sources after joining the European Union of these two countries.

The COVID-19 pandemic exposed significant vulnerabilities in public-sector administrative capacity, particularly in the implementation of crisis-related state aid schemes. Under conditions of extreme workload, time pressure, and legal constraints, administrative processes became critical determinants of policy effectiveness rather than routine implementation mechanisms. This study examines how such processes perform under crisis conditions and whether process modeling and simulation can identify efficiency gains without undermining procedural control. Using a case study of a COVID-19 state aid scheme administered by the Ministry of Transport of the Slovak Republic, the study combines Business Process Model and Notation (BPMN)-based process modeling, discrete-event simulation, and Monte Carlo analysis, and can identify efficiency gains in crisis-related state aid administration. The methodological approach integrates BPMN-based process modeling, discrete-event simulation, and scenario-based (“what-if”) sensitivity analysis to evaluate process performance under crisis-induced demand surges. Key performance indicators, including processing time, labor costs, and resource utilization, are analyzed using simulation outputs and dashboard-based visualization. Data analysis is conducted through simulation-based evaluation of key performance indicators, including processing time, labor costs, queue length, and resource utilization, under both baseline (AS-IS) and redesigned (TO-BE) process configurations. Scenario-based (“what-if”) and sensitivity analyses are applied to assess the effects of crisis-induced demand surges and capacity constraints on administrative performance. The results show that increased application volume during the crisis led to disproportionate growth in processing times due to queue accumulation and resource contention. Simulation-based process redesign reduced the average process cycle time by up to 12.8% and labor costs per application by up to 8.4% compared to the AS-IS configuration. However, efficiency gains diminished as resource utilization approached capacity limits, indicating structural constraints inherent to public administration. These findings demonstrate that process-oriented simulation provides a robust analytical tool for understanding administrative behavior under crisis conditions and for designing more efficient and resilient state aid mechanisms. The study contributes to public administration research by offering a micro-level, process-based perspective on crisis governance that complements the existing macro-level policy evaluations.

The presented study analyzes the impact of openness and economy on Slovak cities and municipalities in the period 2010-2022 using correlation analysis. The results indicate a weak to moderate correlation between openness and transparency in the selected sample of Slovak cities, city districts, and the largest municipality. Significant improvement in the economic domain was observed in 2018. Correlation analysis also reveals that aspects such as public procurement and real estate sales have minimal impact on economic efficiency. Conversely, transparency in municipal enterprises and investments is closely related to economic outcomes. The findings suggest the need for further research and a better understanding of the dynamics between openness and economic outcomes for effective management of public resources and strengthening democratic processes in Slovak cities and municipalities.

Type of the article: Research ArticleAbstractThe COVID-19 pandemic represented a systemic shock to public finances in the European Union, as governments simultaneously faced revenue disruptions, expenditure pressures, and rapid debt accumulation. This study aims to identify and quantify the impact of the pandemic on public finances in European Union Member States and to assess fiscal resilience and long-term sustainability using the Public Finance Triangle, with particular emphasis on how stabilization policies affected its geometric area. The analysis is based on annual Eurostat data for all EU-27 countries covering the period 2011–2021. Year-on-year changes in public revenues, public expenditures, and public debt are integrated into a synthetic geometric indicator that captures their joint fiscal dynamics. The results show that in 2020, the average triangle area at the EU level declined from 14,518 units, representing the 2011–2019 average, to 12,777 units, which corresponds to a decrease of 11.99%. The strongest contractions were recorded in Estonia (−52.43%), Malta (−23.46%), and Lithuania (−22.45%), while the smallest declines were observed in Finland (−9.58%) and Sweden (−10.32%). In 2021, the average triangle area increased to 14,847 units, exceeding the pre-pandemic benchmark by 2.27%, and 20 out of 27 Member States surpassed their long-term averages. The strongest recoveries were observed in Cyprus (+14.34%) and Lithuania (+11.15%), with recovery driven primarily by public revenue dynamics. The findings confirm a universal deterioration of fiscal resilience in 2020 followed by a heterogeneous recovery in 2021, and provide policy-relevant implications for strengthening revenue capacity and ensuring sustainable debt management under future systemic shocks.AcknowledgmentThis paper has been supported by project VEGA 1/0265/25.