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The paper deals with the financial situation of two selected agricultural enterprises in productive as well as in less favourable areas (LFA) in the present situation - before and consecutively after the accession to the EU. 11 selected ratio indicators are used to evaluate the financial situation. There are proposed some preparatory precautions - based on the analysis of the financial situation that can be helpful for Czech farmers in gradual adaptation into the CAP conditions.

Despite the significant decrease of unemployment in Slovak Republic during the year 2003, the problem of high unemployment is still very relevant. In the previous period, various measures of active labour policy have been applied, and their efficiency was approved or disproved only by their realisation. In order to achieve the highest possible efficiency of the spent financial means, it is desirable that every prepared measure is assessed from different aspects by specialists, independent experts as well as by subjects that are to participate in the particular measure. This contribution represents ex ante evaluation analysis. Its objective is to assess the newly proposed measure in the field of active labour policy. The proposal of the measure was elaborated by Dr. Stanislav Buchta, CSc. and was published in the scientific contribution "Possible solutions of unemployment of workers in agriculture and construction industry" in Agricultural Economics 7/2003.The evaluation ex ante analysis was realised as a part of the bilateral project MATRA "System of regular monitoring, analysis and evaluation of employment policy", which was carried out in 2001-2003 in partnership with the National Labour Office and the Socio-economic Research Institute at the Erasmus University in Rotterdam. The analysis has focused on several groups of assessment perspectives such as problems of analysis, the participation of employers and employees in the proposed system of "maintaining wage", implementation aspects, comparison of proposed measure with the measures already realised, submission of alternative solution and evaluation of strengths and weaknesses of the measure.

Using the research technique of document study, the paper analyses printed mass media with national coverage (from the national daily newspapers to specialised journals) during the period of the beginning 2002 - October 2003. The task of the paper is to outline the experiences with the SAPARD Programme as they are recorded in mass media and found among stakeholders (i.e. farmers and the representatives of rural municipalities or rural businesses). The text prolongs the previous investigation among Czech SAPARD shareholders and compares the findings. The SAPARD Programme showed that they are the rural stakeholders who are well prepared to act in the institutionalised frames of the EU structural policy. As a necessary condition of stakeholders for the success in getting the EU funds, there are the visions, enthusiasm and appropriate objects for the the intended project. The issues which have to be developed (and therefore they are the challenge for the future) are achieving better co-ordination of activities, quality and good system of information, dissemination of gathered experiences and simplification of administration.

The objective of the article is to describe the possibilities of the rural development in the Bratislava region. The rural region is represented by 71 municipalities in districts Malacky, Pezinok, Senec and by parts of the city Bratislava - Záhorská Bystrica, Vajnory, Jarovce, Rusovce and Čunovo. The analyses of the rural region are the segments of the Single Programming Document (SPD) for the 2004-2006. It aims to support the areas with the main economic and social problems according the Goal 2. The article deals with the development possibilities in industry, market services, tourism and agriculture. The branch structure, main economic parameters of effectiveness and production, employment, wages are analysed in period 1999-2002. The article contains also the results of SWOT analysis and the short-term activities to supporting rural development.

Transformation of Czech agriculture led to significant changes, which were mirrored in the crystallisation of rather large territorial differences. Clear regional disproportions are a fundamental problem for the state as a whole, therefore, it is important to provide aid for the regions that lag behind in economic development by introducing sensible regional policies. This situation is still more complicated in agriculture, as this transformation to free market economy results in the unequal regional development in relation to natural environment, regional traditions and the level of rural settlement in addition to the phenomena such as price liberalisation and the flow of goods, capital and population, among other. At the moment, the principal aims of regional agricultural policies are the preservation of regional productivity, the settlement of problematic and endangered regions and the support of a balanced regional development. The primary goal of this article is to indicate some of the largest regional differentiations in the agriculture of the Czech Republic. The purpose is to give an increased consideration to the restructuring of agricultural production, the environment and the social and general economic milieu in which it is located

Web technology is a major element of the Internet. The various and inexpensive possibilities to use this technology allow for the minimisation of differences between rural and urban areas. This article focuses on the use of www technology for creating web sites. It outlines theoretical starting points for planning web sites, as well as practical methods, which are utilised for setting up the web presentation of a farm.

The contribution is focused on the problem of development potential in regions from a viewpoint of possibilities of its evaluation. It specifies a matter-of-fact content of development potential and its problems with its use concerning supports of structural character. It contains a selection of indicators, which characterise the region potential; it shows ten indicators, which evaluate also the influence of agriculture in the given region. The contribution suggests approaches to the region potential use.

The economic evaluation of agricultural enterprises in mountain and sub-mountain areas in South Bohemia results from a financial analysis. Financial ratios enable to identify and measure the state and development of individual economic aspects of these enterprises and their synthesis through solvency model makes financial health possible to be elicited.

Cereals have a significant position in land farming in Slovakia. Important commodities are wheat, barley and maize. In the years 1999-2000, a research showed that Slovakia's natural production was lagging behind the developed countries of the EU. Extraordinary low yields were recorded in the economic year 2000/2001 due to drought during the vegetation period. In this paper, there are analyzed the production prices, costs, cereals efficiency and profitability costs. We have also calculated the break-even point in yields, in costs and in production prices of cereals. In addition, we have done some suggestions and recommendations on how to analyze the results.

The information society represents the most fundamental change in our life, with huge opportunities for all people. Program eEurope has been very successful in extending Internet connectivity and has helped to obtain the adoption of the current legal framework for electronic communications and for e-commerce. The eEurope initiative should also become part of the enlargement process of the European Union. Slovakia and other candidate countries take part in realization of the program eEurope+ to support activities in using new information and communication technologies (ICT). eEurope 2005 carries the ambitious objective of achieving "Information Society for All". This means not only overcoming geographical and social differences, but also ensuring an inclusive digital society that provides opportunities for all.

Goal of the paper is to identify opportunities and threats following from the European integration process and influencing the agribusiness entities in the accession country - Slovak Republic. These topics have begun one of the current themes connected with the approaching date of the Slovak Republic accession to the European Union. It is related to the fact, that agrarian but mostly food processing markets have their own specificities, appearing with their typical high sensitivity to the outside environment influence and strong enterprise motivation to competition. In the paper, there are also outlined tasks for business management to analyze external environment, to identify the decisive strengths and weaknesses, to overcome difficulties to adopt European standards and to use opportunities in a wider market place.

The paper analyses formation of specialized activities of Slovak agrarian services. The paper focuses attention on the definition of agrarian services, evaluation of their position and progress of their transformation, their quantitative development and distribution in the regions of the Slovak Republic, as well as on their economic results during the period from 1995 to 2001. Biological, technical, and other specialized services significantly influence the reproduction process of the plant and animal production even in the period of European integration.

The paper presents selected results of the research project NAZV QF 3278 focused on objectification of supply and demand development for organic products. The evaluation of state subsidies' influence on the development of organic agriculture in the Czech Republic and in selected countries of the EU is also included.

The paper deals with the very actual sphere of new conceptions in frame of supplier-customer relations between trade firms and their suppliers. The common idea is management of the distribution channel by the method it would create consumer feeling that the retail shop satisfies his wants and gives him the greatest benefit with the most favourable price. Presumption for realisation of this goal becomes the implementation of a new phenomenon, so-called "Category Management" to current business processes using modern information technology.

The rural area is a very important multifunctional space, with landscape enhancement value and function. These factors are then necessary for the directions of development process in rural communities. The countryside creates an important part of economic and social state system. The area of work and the employment of population into the productive age present ones of significant macro-economic indicators of the capacity of national economy. Changes of economy in the market space, transformation of companies of agricultural primary production to new legal form, restructuring of production and manpower in agriculture caused leaving of part skilled of the workers, as well as other workers to another branches of national economy. In 1990's, especially in the beginning during the transformation of Czech economy, there was a big boom of private business and new forms of business activities and subjects emerged. Traditional lifestyle, which continues in the Czech countryside, determined that small enterprise prevails here. Current economics clearly shows that small and medium enterprises have an unsubstitutable role in our economic development and greatly contribute to creating new jobs in individual regions.

The requirements for compliance with the manufacturing and quality standards and the related investments in the hygienic and structural upgrading of establishments before Slovakia's accession to the European Union meant that the Slovak food processors had to intensify their effort, revise their objectives (where necessary) and increase the volume of investments, particularly during 2003. Many entrepreneurs, particularly in the animal production, decided to go out of business, mainly because the continued operation of obsolete slaughterhouses would require considerable investment effort; at the end of the day, some meat producers closed their slaughter operations and focused on specialised meat processing. Compared with the year before, the profit of food processors declined by 23%. This was due to the faster decline in revenues than expenses, increased cost of revenues, and the reduced output. Although profitable companies still prevailed, the percentage of loss-making companies increased in comparison with the previous year. The starch industry, sugar industry and the confectionery (including coffee substitutes) industry were some of the sectors where all operators were profitable.

The paper is examining the productivity of production factors in the EU-15 and some of the New Member States. International comparison shows that Slovakia is considerably lagging behind the EU-15 countries in the productivity of land and productivity of labour, but it is rather competitive in productivity of the fixed and variable capital. In order to get comparable data, the author adjusted figures on production of agricultural activities published in the Economic Accounts of Agriculture, and excluded the influence of different price - and support levels in the EU-15 and New Member Countries.

The accession to the European Union has brought a number of issues that the new member states have to deal with, namely to use the rules and procedures applicable in the EU. These include the transition from the enterprise towards the product-oriented economy in the agricultural production enterprises. The article describes the aspects of methodology regarding this issue within the framework of the Slovak agriculture. The article emphasizes that the product economics allows to define three levels of profit, namely: market, product and enterprise profit. This issue will be illustrated on the example of a Slovak agricultural enterprise, in terms of its planned calculated generation of profit.

The article analyses situation on the labour market in 1999-2003, with particular focus on the agricultural population, and explains the pressure that forces agricultural employers to reduce their full-time staff and rely more on the seasonal and short-term employment arrangements. In the recent past, the segment of rotating workers (who take up short-term seasonal jobs between periods of unemployment), has taken on quite a significant dimension. The article also analyses territorial aggregations with high incidence of agricultural unemployment. It points at the regular, seasonal and increased layouts of agricultural workers who end up in the register of unemployed. It identifies the social risk connected with the seasonal type of work arrangements in agriculture from the viewpoint of the labour and social protection and increased social marginalisation of this social group.

The article presents results of measuring influence of the selected economic differentiation factors on successfulness of agricultural businesses. As key factors, there were selected: the size of company, legal form, allocation based on attractions of soil - climatic conditions. Regarding certain financial indicators results and the specified order of analysed companies, they were divided into groups depending on theirs successfulness. Each group was compared and analysed. At the end, the results of dividing into the groups were graphically presented.

Based on extensive literature review, the characteristics of a learning organisation are depicted as a starting point to define a pragmatic tool to assess the level to which an organisation meets the individual characteristics of learning organisation. The tool is designed as a matrix combining eight characteristics of learning organisation with four improvement levels including feedback loop. This tool has been tested in 9 organisations and the examples of information gathered through this exercise are provided and discussed.

The goal of the paper is to identify opportunities following from the use of theory of modern marketing in the business practice in terms to reach competitiveness in the global food market. The paper analyses in details the competitive advantages related to individual marketing tools as well as using some up-to-date marketing tactics with the goal to attract a customer. In addition to the most effective use of marketing tools, we define the role of marketing in the global market space and distinguish the local, regional and global extend of marketing activities.

In the paper, there is described using of the optimization models AGRO-3 SR for modeling food production chains in the Slovak Republic (the modified version of the Czech model AGRO-3) and ALOKA for optimal allocation of the domestic agricultural production computed by AGRO-3 SR into 4 different regions of the SR for simulation of consequences of various types of agrarian policies on the effectiveness of the Slovak agriculture to the medium-term horizon 2005. There are formulated and evaluated 4 scenarios for the model AGRO-3 SR and two alternatives A and B for the model ALOKA relating to all scenarios. Results of simulations have shown that the best result was reached in the scenario 4 by the price liberalization in the whole food chains.

The paper is based on a special sampling survey of farms that was conducted under EU PHARE ACE research project P97-8158-R "Micro-economic Analysis of Farm Restructuring in Central and Eastern Europe" in 2000 in one of the NUTS 2 regions of the CR - in the South-East region. The region involves two administrative regions - Vysočina and South Moravian NUTS 3 and consists of subregions with different natural and market conditions (of hilly, lowland and suburban type) representing the conditions of agricultural production in the Czech Republic as a whole. The main results of the survey focused on farms of three different categories are presented: farms as legal entities (separately agricultural production cooperatives, joint stock companies and limited liability companies), officially registered individual farms of different size (formally licensed to business activities) and unregistered individual farms including small farming units - households with self-sustaining agricultural production.