Competences of Slovenian regulatory bodies regarding PSI re-use Maja Lubarda Legal Adviser, Information Commissioner

Re-use of PSI in Slovenia – legislation The Slovenian national legislation implementing the Directive 2003/98/EC is: 1. Slovene Access to Public Information Act (Official Gazette, No. 24/03, 61/05) - (30th June 2005) Articles that specifically govern the re-use of information are the following: Art. 1, 4, 5, 6, 7, 17, 22, 34a, 36 and 36a) 2. Decree on the provision of public information (Official Gazette, No. 76/05) (12th August 2005) (Chapter VIII, Articles 22 through 27; Price and other conditions of re-use of public sector information)

3 Is there a centralised public body, dealing with PSI? NO Ministrsty of Public Affairs Information Commissioner

4 Ministry of public administration TASKS OF THE MINISTRY (Art. 32 APIA): promotional and developmental tasks, in particular: 1.Informing the public about the means and conditions for access and re - use of public information 2.Providing counseling to other bodies in relation to the application of the provisions of this Act 3.Other promotional and developmental tasks 4.Inspection and supervision over the implementation of this Act

Information Commissioner competences an independent body PSI and DPA competences PSI access and re-use competences certain inspection and misdemeanor procedure competences

Information Commissioner – the procedure 1. Applicant files a request for access/re-use of PSI 2. Public body denies the right to access/re-use or does not issue a decision on the request 3. Applicant can appeal to the IC 4. IC issues a binding decision – applicant or body can start an administrative court procedure against the IC decision

7 When and where to appeal? The right to appeal: –Against the decision by which the body has refused the request, –When the information received is not in the form requested, –Against the charging of re-use, –When there is no answer or an appropriate decision (mute refusal) The appeal process is free of charge (no administrative tax).

8 Important points of the procedure the IC decision is binding (possibility of administrative dispute), Includes a large variety of bodies (also courts, sometimes business sector), a second level procedure before an independent body,

9 Important points of the procedure It's a misdemeanor and a fine can be charged, if: - Ithe body does not send the documents to the IC (inspection competences, can inlude police), - the body does not respect the IC decision, - someone re-uses information for commercial purposes, for which the body charges a price or states other conditions and the body did not allow such re-use (Ministry of Public Affairs competence).

These compenteces are very important IC is an independent body – the procedure doesnt happen within the body requested to provide information, IC is specialized for PSI legislation, Due to IC competences certain information of great importance to the public have become public (H1N1 vaccine, nuclear waste disposal).

Thank you! (eng.) (slo.)