Issues of innovation and technology transfer are framed by a broad legislation and financial schemes at the European and national level. In context of the strategy Europe 2020 and the initiative Innovation Union, the mutual interconnection between the new knowledge creation and its economic valuation is important for competitiveness of the economy. Innovation systems are characterized by a large scale of different actors and dynamic interactions between them. The intensity of the innovation activity of enterprises is mostly influenced by the level of their legal awareness and by the ability to utilize the innovation mechanisms and opportunities for transfer of knowledge, modern technologies and practices. The paper characterizes selected legal and financial mechanisms and points out the possibilities and problems related to their implementation in economic sphere, particularly in the agrifood sector. At the beginning, the authors describe the key aspects of the innovation policy and technology transfer in the EU and Slovakia. Next parts of the paper are focused on the issue of legal institutes concerning the industrial property and on the financial instruments for the period 2014-2020 emphasizing the innovative ones and possibilities of their combination. In the final part, the authors point out the barriers and possibilities in innovation implementation and in the process of transfer of technologies and knowledge to economic sphere.

The number of farmers in the European Union is gradually declining due to weak incentives, especially for the younger generation, to work in agriculture. State intervention is therefore essential for the preservation of farms in the form of legal regulation of succession as well as the creation of a supportive environment for successor entities to be able to continue agricultural production effectively. The aim of this paper is therefore to assess the sustainability potential of agricultural holdings on the basis of an analysis of the legislation on the succession and transfer of agricultural land holdings to physical and legal persons. In this article, we used traditional legal methods of examining legal regulations based on grammatical, logical, systematic, and teleological interpretations. The results show that in Slovakia there is currently no specific legal regulation by the state that would address the succession of agricultural land and agricultural enterprises in a targeted manner.

The reasons of the continuing reforms in public administration in Slovakia are both political changes after the elections and both aim to reduce the cost of government performance, the number of employees, transfer the responsibilities from the state to self-government, allocation of public funds between government and self-government. All reforms were implemented in the spirit of generally declared attempts "to bring the administration closer to citizen", which has partly succeeded. However, we can not overlook the negative side of "rotation" of the "general model" and "specialized model" of public administration within the reform process since the citizens did not understand the reasons for these changes. Since 2004 a specialized model of public administration is established. Currently, the Ministry of Interior launched a further reform aimed at restructuring and reducing the state administration. Since January 2013 again a ,,general model" of public administration is established and regional specialized offices should be cancelled, and from 01.10.2013, the remaining offices of specialized state administration will be cancelled as well. Instead of current offices of specialized state administration, 72 district offices with general scope will be created. However, it does not mean automatically the decrease of the number of employees. The aim of the reform is to change the ratio of service activities that are dedicated to the cancelled offices. The people, who lose their jobs, are envisaged to work in "centres of support"activities. The primary goal is not to lay off people, but to use them effectively.

Cross-border mergers are regulated by the Directive 2005/56/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 26 October 2005 on crossborder mergers of limited liability companies. This article deals with the issue of cross-border mergers of limited liability companies within the internal market of the European Union, more precisely it analyzes the question of the concept of a cross-border merger under the European Union law and its implementation into the national legal order of the Slovak Republic. The legal definition of a cross-border merger under the European Union law comprises three key conditions that must be met cumulatively: cross-border merger is applicable only for a business company formed in accordance with the law of an EU Member State, having its registered office, central administration or principal place of business within the Community, and at the same time business company must be in an eligible legal form and a cross-border element must be given.