Economic impacts of the energy crisis on local governments in the Slovak Republic and the Czech Republic

The main objective of the presented article is to analyze the impacts of the energy crisis (2022-2023) on the budgets of selected Slovak (Trenčín Self-Governing Region) and Czech (Zlín Self-Governing Region) local governments. In addition, it is essential to find out how they limited the impact of the crisis on their everyday activities and to what extent they had to suspend their development activities. The secondary objective was to compare in which country (the Slovak Republic and the Czech Republic) local governments managed the impacts of the energy crisis better and more efficiently. In the first research question, we found out whether selected Slovak and Czech local governments agree with the opinion that the energy crisis has affected their basic function, and the second research question aimed to answer whether the increase in energy prices has affected their economic functioning. We also asked what budget they had before the energy crisis. In addition, we asked to what extent their local economy was affected by high energy prices. In the end, we found out what planned investments in the field of development specific local governments had to suspend due to the energetic crisis. As a part of the third research question, we asked whether the Czech and Slovak governments helped sufficiently address local governments with specific financial means. In addition, we asked how they evaluated the communication with government institutions in the field of energy price compensation at the time. Finally, we found out what specific measures Czech and Slovak local governments used to address the impact of high energy prices on their local budgets.