Report on Public Participation in Lawmaking (SK0133)

Increasing public participation in the creation of public policies is regulated by the ROS ROS initiative alsoSlovak legislation, namely through the Institute of Preliminary Information and the Institute of Administrationon public participation. 39 Institute reports on public participation in rulemaking is toSlovak law was received by the adoption of Act no. 400/2015 Coll. on Legal Formationon the Collection of Laws of the Slovak Republic and on amendments and supplements to certain acts.The amendment of the Legislative Rules of the Government of the Slovak Republic introduced its formalized models.The purpose of introducing the institute reports on public participation in rulemaking was particularly:

• providing guidance during participatory law-making;
• Providing a means of declaring public involvement in lawmaking;• providing a feedback mechanism to the submitter.

From the analysis of application practice and discussions with legislative employeeslegislative branches of ministries and other central government bodies during the week of open governance in 2018 and 2019 several findings emerged:
• employees of individual legislative departments of ministries and others CSOs prefer to use the form of their own Report on Public Participation in Legal Formationas its formalized versions are not part of the Slov-Lex system on which it is basedthe legislative process takes place,
• formalized templates Reports on public participation are complicated and are usually completedbefore submitting an application for interdepartmental consultation,• there is a lack of feedback on participatory processes that have been carried out in the preparation of proposalslegislation,
• formalized templates of the Report on Public Participation in Lawmaking are appropriateas several questions cannot be answered within the statutory deadlineits elaboration, or they can be held responsible only after the interdepartmental comment procedure.

For these reasons and at the request of employees and employees of the legislative departments Ministries and other CSOs and civil society, models of the Report on Participation inin order to facilitate its elaboration.This will also encourage greater public involvement in the drafting of legislation and openness to legislationprocesses.

Specific milestone towards the goal:
18. Modify in a participatory manner the formalized templates of the Report on Public Participation in Creationlegislation and the resulting proposal to submit to the Government of the SR.
Deadline: 30 June 2020
Responsible: Government Plenipotentiary for Civil Society Development
Co-responsible: Deputy Prime Minister of the Slovak Republic for investments and informatisation, ministers, chairmenother central government bodies

Ongoing role in the topic of participation, still ongoing from Government Resolution no. 104/2017 is shownin Annex no. Point 1 4.2.

8. Modify public participation report for legislative processes

Main Objective

“Amend the Report on Public Participation in the Drafting of Legislation.” [123]

Milestones

1. In a participatory manner, amend formalized templates of the Report on Public Participation in the Drafting of Legislation and submit the final draft to the Government of the Slovak Government.

Editorial Note: For the complete text of this commitment, please see Slovakia’s action plan at https://www.opengovpartnership.org/documents/slovakia-action-plan-2019-2021/.

Commitment Analysis

The commitment to modify reports on public participation in the legislative process is new, but it builds on the previous efforts of the Office of the Plenipotentiary in the area of participative processes. Its main aim is to amend the formal templates that public administration uses in legislative processes to document civic participation. The milestone specifies that changes to templates will be adopted as a result of participatory process.

Therefore, the commitment is relevant to civic participation as amending the templates will consider inputs from CSOs. Ministries and public authorities already publish reports on public participation (informing how the public was engaged in the draft law-making [124]) on Slov-lex, along with other materials required for initiating legislative processes, so the commitment could make it easier to compare the extent of civic participation in legislative processes across public authorities.

Although the current templates have been generally well-received, [125] they have also faced criticism for their self assessment, yes-no format, and that their usefulness and informative value depends on how public administration uses them. [126] The legislation [127] that brought in the reports of public participation included four templates based on the level of public engagement (inform, consult, involve, and collaborate with the public in its broadest sense). The templates were designed to cover all stages of law-making, i.e., preparatory works, informing and engaging the public, and evaluating the whole process. The templates are checklists asking the public administration a set (14 to 33 depending on the level of public engagement) of yes-no questions about the character of law-making processes (e.g. appropriateness of the used communication tools). Public authorities should ideally offer additional information supporting their answers in the templates, but some do not. [128]

The way and frequency that current templates are used – or not – is a challenge which this commitment seeks to address. One interviewee stated in the previous IRM report [129] that in the current state, the templates might even increase the administrative burden of public servants, and they might decide to use their own reports instead. In some instances, these reports were more informationally rich than completed templates, as some legislators detailed the description of public engagement. For instance, while the template only asks yes-no questions if the key civil society actors were identified and engaged, public authorities [130] that used their own templates often listed these actors. The latest report by the Office of the Plenipotentiary from 2017 [131] concluded that although the use of templates slightly increased, relative to 2016, public administration still preferred to write reports on public participation in their own words rather than use the templates. Furthermore, as the new action plan [132] rightly points out, some of the questions in the templates are impossible to answer before the deadlines for completing the report. Also, as the action plan states, public servants who discussed the usefulness of reports during Open Government Weeks in Slovakia concluded that feedback on participatory processes related to draft proposals of legal regulations is missing. While the feedback to drafters from CSOs helps public servants to improve future processes, feedback to the public including citizens, CSOs, and other involved stakeholders on how their comments were addressed is equally important, and the Office of the Plenipotentiary could include this aspect in the discussion on how new reports should look.             

While addressing the issues identified by the commitment has been seen by civil society representatives as a positive step, [133] its impact is considered minor. This is due to the unclear impact on whether it enhances access to information or includes new information, or whether it creates new opportunities for civic participation. The Office of the Plenipotentiary [134] confirmed that there is a dedicated working group, consisting of the representatives of public administration, civil society, and academia, which discusses how new templates should look. Via Iuris, a prominent CSO, is a member of the working group and was invited to comment on the process. Another restriction on its impact comes from stakeholder assessments in previous IRM reports that these self-assessments by public administration do not include any oversight [135] or input from those who participated in the processes. The commitment does not address these issues.

8. Modify public participation report for legislative processes

Limited

At first, personal changes in the relevant ministries [99] and the COVID-19 pandemic [100] hampered the progress of this commitment. Prior to the parliamentary election in February 2020, a working group of public administration and civil society representatives discussed the new templates for the public participation report for legislative processes. [101] However, after the election, this working group did not immediately resume its work. As a result, the initial deadline for this commitment (30 June 2020) has been postponed several times to the current deadline (31 December 2021).

In August 2021, the Deputy Prime Minister for Legislation and Strategic Planning Štefan Holý published preliminary information on the amendment of the Act on Lawmaking. [102] A representative of the Office of the Plenipotentiary stated that they used the public comment period to remind the government of the commitment to create new templates for reports on public participation. [103] The Office of the Plenipotentiary coordinated the working group as a part of the implementation of the commitment. Other members were ministries, central government departments, and the CSO, Via Iuris. The working group drafted two formalized templates for two levels of public involvement in legislative processes: “Information” and “Involvement/Discussion.” [104] These drafts were communicated to the Deputy Prime Minister for Legislation and Strategic Planning. However, they have not been submitted to the government yet. Therefore, completion of this commitment was assessed as limited.