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Information
on the Council of the Government of the Slovak Republic for Non-
Governmental Non-Profit Organisations (CG NGNPO)

The CG NGNPO was created by the government of Slovak Republic by its Resolution No.
738 of 31 August 1999 when the Charter of the CG NGNPO was approved as well. Before
that, draft Charter of the Council of the Government of the Slovak Republic for Non-
Governmental Non-Profit Organisations was elab orates in the context of the new government
of SR (elected in 1998) entering the office and in compliance with the tasks for the area of
civil society resulting from the Programme d eclaration of the Government of the Slovak
Republic, in the context of the Declaration by the 6 Stupava NGO Conference and on the
basis of outputs from repeated meeting wit the representatives of the Gremium of Third
Sector (Grémium tretieho sektora), Donors Forum (Fórum donorov) and the representatives of
other umbrella and service NGOs in the Slovak Republic

From the Charter of CG NGNPO:
Article 1

The Charter of the Council of the Gove rnment of the Slovak Republic for Non-
Governmental Non-Profit Organisations (herei nafter the “Council”) stipulates the status,
scope, principles of the operation of the Council, composition of and membership on the
Council, the rights and duties of the Chairman, Vice-Chairman, Secretary and members of the
Council, and the organisation and administrativ e framework of the operation of the Council.

Article 2
The Status of the Council

The Council is an advisory and initiating body of the Government of the Slovak
Republic to support the activities of non-governmental non-profit organisations. These mainly
include civic associations, f oundations and non-investment funds, associations of legal
entities, property associations and charity a nd humanitarian organisations, which carry out
publicly beneficial activities, in particular in the field of humanity and charity, care for
children, youth and sports, education, human righ ts protection, healthcare, culture, protection
of the environment and regional development.

Article 3
The scope of activities of the Council

/1/ The Council shall carry out tasks accordi ng to its own work plan that links up and
complies with the work plan of the Government and the plan of legislative tasks of the
Government of the Slovak Republic.

/2/ The scope of activities of the Council shall mainly include:

a) initiating and evaluating policy material s and measures for decisions by the
Government of the Slovak Republic con cerning the support of non-governmental non-
profit organisations,

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b) initiating legislative drafts and commenting le gislative drafts relating to the conditions
of activities of non-government al non-profit organisations,

c) cooperating with central bodies of state administration of the Slovak Republic on
programmes of cooperation between the state and non-governmental non-profit
organisations at all levels of public affa irs administration, defining procedures and
criteria for the access of non-governmental non-profit organisations to public funds,
on the granting system of subsidies from the state budget to non-governmental non-
profit organisations and pr oposing appropriate represen tation of non-governmental
non-profit organisations in decision-making, monitoring and evaluating bodies,

d) initiating activities of a publicly accessi ble information system with a databases
structure on non-governmental non-profit orga nisation as well as programmes of the
Government of the Slovak Republic, its deci sions and adopted tasks that shall be
based on the needs of non-governmental non-profit organisations and the Government
of the Slovak Republic,

e) shall establish specialised working groups for addressing exceptionally intricate
problems.

Article 4
Composition of the Council and Membership on the Council

/1/ The Council is composed of the Chairm an, Vice-Chairman, Secretary and members.

/2/ The Government of the Slovak Republic appoints and removes the Chairman of the
Council and the Deputy Prime Minister of th e Government of the Slovak Republic for
Human Rights, Minorities and Regional Deve lopment is the Chairman of the Council.

/3/ The Chairman of the Council appoints and removes the Vice-Chairman and members
of the Council upon a proposal by non-government al non-profit organisations, ministers
of the relevant ministries a nd other central bodies of the st ate administration of the Slovak
Republic after their names list approval by the Government of the Slovak Republic.

/4/ The Chairman of Council appoints and removes the Secretary of the Council upon the
proposal by the Council.

/5/ Representatives of non-governmental non-p rofit organisations, ministries and other
central bodies of the state administration of the Slovak Republic having a competence
with respect to non-governmental non-profit or ganisations are members of the Council.
Their list is in the annex hereto.

/6/ Non-governmental non-prof it organisations and their umbrella and service
organisations nominate the representatives of nongovernmental non-profit organisations
after agreeing with the Chairman of the Counc il. State secretaries proposed by the relevant
ministers represent the ministries. The repres entatives nominated by the competent central
body of the state administration of the Slovak Republic represent other central bodies of
the state administration of the Slovak Republic.

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/7/ Only a national of the Slovak Republic who is a person of integrity can be a member of
the Council.

/8/ Membership in the Counc il is a honorary function. The members of the Council are
irreplaceable in their function. The member shall inform the Secretary of the Council
about his/her absence from the meeting in writing in advance.

Note: The entire Charter – see enclosure

A) Activities of the Council of the Government of the Slovak Republic for Non-
Governmental Non-Profit Organis ations during the 1999-2002 period:

The government elected in 1998 had positively changed its attitude to civic society
organisations, however, many plans and tasks that would be of be nefit for the development of
partnership relations with the NGO sector and that were included in the Programme
Declaration of the Government had not been fully translated into concrete results. All of them
were tasks where the state has also its share of responsibility, however, they require a cross-
sectoral and systemic approach, general accep tance of the roles and activities of the NGO
sector on the side of the stat e, local governments and public opinion in the shaping and
developing the civic society.
During the period 1999-2002, 17 representati ves of state administration and 19
representatives of NGOs were members of the CG NGNPO, Deputy Prime Minister Pál
Csáky was the Chairman of the CG NGNPO, St ate Secretary of the Ministry of Finance
Vladimil Podstránsky was the Vice-Chair man. The Secretariat of CG NGNPO was
organisationally under the Human Rights and Mi norities Section of the Office of the
Government of the Slovak Republic and Dir ector General of the Section Jana Kviečinská was
at the same time the Secretary the CG NGNPO.
In the previous period the CG NGNPO sat five times. It has established working groups the
members of which are also non-members of th e CG NGNPO and which work on the design of
concrete technical, topical drafts and tasks.
The plans and proposals made by the NGOS for the Government of the Slovak
Republic, which were also discussed at the CG NGNPO were based on current discussions
concerning the development and prospects of the non-governmental non-profit sector, the
need to adopt or amend pieces of legislati on laying down the institutional framework and the
need to look for mechanisms that wo uld result in its financial stability.

B) Activities of the Council of the Government of the Slovak Republic for Non-
Governmental Non-Profit Organisations in th e period after parliamentary elections in
2002:

The Government of the Slovak Republic, by its Resolution No. 223 of 23 March 2003
approved the proposal for the renewed composition of the Council of the Government of the
Slovak Republic for Non-Governmental Non-Prof it Organisations. This proposal deals with
the representation of central state administ ration bodies and non-governmental non-profit
organisations on the Council of the Govern ment for Non-Governmental Non-Profit
Organisations, with a view to the changes th at have occurred since the 2002 parliamentary
elections at the level of state administration and in the internal self-organisation of the third
sector in Slovakia.

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Current CG NGNPO is composed of 40 members.

18 of them are representatives of state administration: Deputy Prime Minister for the
European Integration, Human Rights and Minorities
Pál Csáky remains the Chairman of the
CG NGNPO; other state repres entatives are: 13 State Secretaries of Ministries, one
representative of National Bank of Slovakia, on e representative of Statistical Office of SR,
one representative of Government Office – Section of European Affairs and the Chief
Hygienist of SR. The State Secretary of th e Ministry of Finance Vladimil Podstránsky
remains the Vice-Chairman of the Council.

22 members are representatives of „platforms“ of NGOs while as „platf orms“ of NGOs are
considered formal or informal groupings of NGOs representing certain areas of NGO
activities.

Note: The entire List of Members of CG NGNPO – see enclosure

The new CG NGNPO met on its first session on 8 April 2003. The Work Plan of CG NGNPO
for 2003 was approved, as well as creation of two Working Groups: one for legislative and
economical issues and one for the issues concerning the NGOs involvement into the process
of integration.

The Secretariat of CG NGNPO is organisati onally under the Human Rights and Minorities
Section of the Office of the G overnment of the Slovak Republic and Director General of the
Section Jana Kvie činská is at the same time th e Secretary the CG NGNPO.
Administrational assistance for the Secretatiat is covered by Tereza Horská, who is Senior
Counsellor of the Human Rights and Minorities Section of the Office of the Government.

Contact address and persons of the Secretariat of the Council of the Government of the
Slovak Republic for Non-Governme ntal Non-Profit Organisations:

Jana Kviečinská, Director General
Tereza Horská, Senior Counsellor
Human Rights and Minorities Section
Office of the Government of SR
Námestie slobody 1
813 70 Bratislava
Slovakia
Ph: ++421 2 572 95 165, ++421 2 572 95 371
Fax: ++421 2 572 95 424
e-mail: jana.kviecinska@government.gov.sk
tereza.horska@government.gov.sk

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