Radio Slovakia International

Constitutional Court to Examine Act on Non-profit Making Organisations

RSI

The Constitutional Court is to examine the Act on Non-profit Making Organisations, effective as of February 1, 2010, based on a complaint filed by opposition MPs, Independent MPs and Most-Hid party member Gabor Gal told. Gal thinks that the aim of the Act is to nationalize the assets of non-profit making organisations, to curb their independence and to use them financially. As an example he mentioned organisations that run several hospitals in Slovakia. According to the Act, which was passed in December 2009, the structure of these organisations’ boards in healthcare has to correspond with the ratio of state assets invested in such organisations.

As of February, the state can appoint the majority of board members if its investment in the organisation concerned exceeds half of all investments. Gal stated that the majority of the board members of non-profit making organisations have been appointed by the current Government. ”It”s mainly entrepreneurs who are active in the healthcare sector, so I don’t know whose interests they will promote, but it seems as though it won’t be the interests of non-profit making organisations,” he said. According to constitutional lawyer Radoslav Prochazka, who will represent the MPs at the Constitutional Court, the Act is at odds with norms guaranteeing the protection of access to ownership rights that guard the boundary lines between the state and the private sector.