As from February 1, 2017, access to public resources will be conditioned by registration in the register of public sector partners. Rules concerning the register were adopted by the Slovak Parliament in October last year.  The main objective of Act No. 315/2016 Coll. on Register of Public Sector Partners (the “Act”) is to stipulate the conditions of access to public resources to be met by subjects with whom the state, i.e., public authorities, enters into legal relations.

Public Sector Partners

Under the Act, a partner of the public sector is deemed any natural or legal person who is not a public administrative body and receives financial means, assets, rights to assets or other property rights from public resources (especially from state or municipality budgets and public bodies, including financial means from the European structural and investment funds and the state and investment aid).

Register and Registration Procedure

The register of public sector partners (the “Register”) is a public administration information system, available on the website of, and maintained by, the Ministry of Justice of the Slovak Republic. Registration is performed by the only registration body in the Slovak Republic – the District Court of Zilina.

A petition for registration of data/information, its change or erasure can be submitted on behalf of a public sector partner only by an authorized person, such as a notary public, attorney-at-law, auditor, tax counsel or another professional, who has the registered office or place of business in the Slovak Republic and who has agreed in writing to fulfil the obligations of an authorized person on behalf of the public sector partner.

Petitions may be submitted only electronically to the electronic mailbox of the registration body by completing a form. An authorized person must authorize a petition along with all its annexes, if any, according to the relevant provisions of the Act. In a petition, the authorized person must always provide true and complete information.

Identification of Ultimate Beneficial Owners

A public sector partner and an authorized person are responsible for the accuracy of registered information, identification of the ultimate beneficial owner and verification of such identification.

The identification of the ultimate beneficial owner and verification of such identification can be certified by a verification document, in which the authorized person provides information as required by the Act, especially (i) explains what information was considered to identify the ultimate beneficial owner and verify such identification and (ii) states the ownership and control structure of the public sector partner.