Even the Copenhagen criteria, which, inter alia, emphasise the importance of the ability to cope with competitive pressures and market forces within the EU, are based on it. Being an EU membership candidate, the Slovak Republic is also facing the task of meeting the above criterion, because the level of the Slovak economy's competitiveness (compared with developed countries) is as yet relatively low in general. In gross domestic product (GDP), measured by per capita purchasing power parities (PPPs), Slovakia reaches only 49% of the EU average. From among Central European candidate countries, this indicator is lower only in Poland. Another manifestation of low competitiveness is the trade balance deficit. In the 1994-1999 period, Slovakia, again together with Poland, had the highest deficit as a share of GDP (-7.2%). The low competitiveness is further confirmed by the fact that compared with other candidate countries the Slovak economy has the lowest share of domestic production in domestic demand (consumption and investments).

The most serious fact, however, is that the main risks to the Slovak economy's competitiveness on the doorstep to the EU are caused by the considerable lagging behind in productivity. It only reaches roughly a half of the EU average (GDP per employee using the US$ / PPPs) and only about 20% when calculated using the current exchange rate. Other Central European candidate countries (except Poland) have a relatively higher level of productivity. At the same time, the low comparative level of productivity caused that the rise in prices in 1994-1999 was reflected in the depreciation of the exchange rate, although only partially because by 1998 the exchange rate was fixed. Therefore no rapid increase in the comparative price level or decrease in exchange rate deviation occurred, which are other important indicators of the level of an economy's competitiveness. This is why at the end of 2000 the price level in Slovakia reached only 36% of the EU average and Exchange Rate Deviation Index (ERDI) was at about 3.0. Levels reached in other candidate countries at the end of the 90s are significantly more favourable: the comparative price level (CPL) in the Czech Republic reached 39%, in Hungary 43%, in Poland 48% and in Slovenia as much as 65% of the EU-15 average. CPL in Spain, Portugal and Greece in the year of accession oscillated between 50-70% of the then European Community average.

Even though the decisive cause of the low CPL is poor labour productivity, which reflects the low level of Slovakia's competitiveness in terms of quality, especially in the manufacturing, the relatively low inflation rate maintained in the 1994-1999 period also played a certain role in this. While the average inflation rate in Slovakia in this period was at the level of 8.7%, Hungary and Poland recorded inflation as high as 18%. Slovenia, despite considerably high inflation at the beginning of the 90s and even before, still recorded inflation of 9% in 1994 to 1999. Difficult sales conditions in the world markets also play a role in the low comparative price level. A considerable section of product markets is controlled by multinational corporations, which are in most cases brand name companies with good tradition and reputation (goodwill). Success in these markets is only possible by becoming a part of these companies, mainly in the form of joint ventures, or accepting considerable price concessions in the form of price discounts.

Moreover, producers from candidate countries must usually cope with buyers' distrust, mainly in the case of final products, because they come from the former Eastern bloc, which is automatically associated with low quality, i.e. risky business. This unflattering reputation of new unknown companies and brands from candidate countries is unfairly generalised and usually results in price discounts as a compensation for these disadvantages
In addition, there is the factor of internal corporate prices set in a non-market manner for exports. These prices can be lower than market prices thanks to the redistribution processes inside these corporations. Besides the obvious macroeconomic dimension, the international competitiveness of an economy also needs to be monitored at the lower aggregate level - at the level of sectors or homogenous product groups. The structure of Slovak exports has improved substantially in recent years, in particular by reducing the group of raw material, energy and capital intensive commodities in favour of science and research intensive commodities, generally called sophisticated. Their share reached approximately 44% in 2000 and became much closer to that in economically advanced EU countries, as well as in the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovenia. Slovakia records relatively higher competitiveness for less processed products (raw material, energy, capital and labour intensive commodities) compared with science and research intensive commodities, the share of which in exports has increased.