The study examines the liabilities as a share of the GDP of the municipal subsystems of public finances and the organisations owned by them in EU Member States between 2013 and 2018. The main goal of the current study is to characterise the EU Member States regarding the examined two areas. Additionally, we analysed the connections between the entities’ liabilities, used statistical methods to compare the respective values and to examine the impacts of the local government system models and the geopolitical location on debt. There were three hypotheses formulated during the research, all of which were confirmed. A statistical connection can be perceived between the two areas of economic management of the local system, and it has also been established that the liabilities as a percentage of the GDP of local government owned corporations are significant, particularly in Scandinavian countries and Germany. At the same time, however, it has to be noted that the results of the theoretical division and the statistical analyses differ from each other. At the end of the study, we used a case study to examine how the two areas developed over time and how the regulatory environment affected debt value. In addition, we also considered the debt dynamics of municipalities and their business organisations, subject to a comprehensive fiscal reform after 2010, which represents another unique element of this study.

The aim of this study is to assess the financial risks, as interpreted by us, of Hungarian corporations fully owned by municipalities across a national dimension after the global economic crisis broken out in 2008. In this study, financial risk was measured by profitability, liquidity and the equity ratio. We were seeking an answer to the question as to how more stringent state controls had influenced the companies’ ability to provide public services and their financial situation behind in a more robust public financial regulatory and control environment created in Hungary after 2010, that is, how the going concern principle of accounting had been implemented. Indirectly, we were also seeking an answer to the question as to how operational risks had been affected by the “breaking” effect on net income exerted by the administrative price regulation (reduction of utility costs on the consumers’ side) imposed on the services of public utility companies in 2013 (as part of the public finance re-form introduced in 2010), that is, whether a more robust regulatory environment of public finances compelled the promotion of corporate efficiency. With the complex (and inter-related) methodology of the assessments carried out, we could establish that financial risks improved, but we propose even stricter controls due the economic shock caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Our research results present a comprehensive situational picture of municipally owned companies providing public services in an emerging market economy, which can be compared with the data of other countries as well.

The aim of this paper is to analyse legal and financial dynamics of the self-governance in three countries of the Visegrad Group: The Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia. The paper explores compliance with the European Charter of Local Self-Government, financial independence and operational features of self-governance. The paper provides an overview of the regulatory environment that was set up for the local government in the Visegrad countries, examines the powers by local government, and the degree of its financial independence. The financial aspects of self-government are compared, and compliance with major fiscal rules is examined.