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Eco-innovations according the European Commission determine the future of Europe and stand at the heart of the EU's policies. The focus of the Europe 2020 Strategy is on smart, sustainable, and inclusive growth. Eco-innovations are perceived as a critical for carrying out objectives of the Strategy. To deliver the objectives of the Strategy, Eco-Innovation Action Plan (EcoAP) was adopted by the European Commission in 2011, and now it represents not only a crucial part of the European policy framework for sustainable production and consumption, which supports a set of environmental initiatives but also serves a crucial factor to following the goals of the circular economy. At the same time, it is not clear empirically how eco-innovations are linked with the progress of the EU countries towards sustainable and circular economy.

Current paper contributes to better understanding of the gaps in environmental performance of the Slovak Republic as one of the smallest economies of the EU and outlining their impacts on economic development of the country. Outlining gaps in environmental performance of Slovak Republic allows researching their impact in terms of specific indicators of environmental performance on economic development of the country. There have been defined the most problematic aspects of environmental performance of the Slovak Republic, in particular, not sufficient waste water management, low efficiency of the use of energy resources, low rate of decline of the emissions of basic pollutants from growing sectors, low efficiency of waste management, lack of coordination of climate and environmental policies.