Mezei István: Urban development in Slovakia (Pécs-Somorja, 2010)
6. Towns along the Hungarian and Slovak border
Towns along the Hungarian and Slovak border The Slovak regions are of a much larger size, especially if we compare them with Komárom-Esztergom or Nógrád Counties. This creates a problem if we try to pair regions and counties bordering each other, because the cooperation between a small-size county with a small population density and a larger region may result in a clash of interests. In case of the large-sized Banská Bystrica region and the small-sized Nógrád County, the distance of their centres from the border also plays an important role. Salgótarján, by the border, is interested in cooperation, but Banská Bystrica, which can be found much farther away from the border, has different interests. The same is true of the Nitra region and Komárom-Esztergom County, as well as the Trnava region and Győr- Moson-Sopron County, with special regard to the different interests of their centres. The distribution of the towns is also uneven, because, in Pest County there are much more towns than in other Hungarian counties. Slovak towns, on the other hand, are more evenly distributed in the different Slovak regions. Due to their big size, Slovak regions are more populous, but have a higher number of small settlements. Therefore, the average population of settlements is lower. Here, in turn, there is a similarity, and right between Nógrád County and the Banská Bystrica region, which were the examples for large differences above. Both administrative units have typically many small settlements, which has different effects on cross-border relations. On the one hand, there are no nearby big cities with gravitation areas on either side of the border that could determine the nature of cooperation, and, on the other hand, the many small settlements are trying to develop relations because of their own difficulties, but, since their problems are very similar, they cannot find a growth path, even if they join forces. Similarly, the district and small regional division is unusable, too, because the zone involved is too narrow. Actually, there are fairly important forms of cooperation beyond the boundaries of districts and small regions. Evidently, as is demonstrated by the social indicators involved in Table 40, there are similarities on the two sides of the border at district and small regional levels. 143
