As of 1 January 2017, a special provision on the electronic exercise of public authority by courts was added to the Courts Act. In court proceedingsOpens in a new window, therefore, logging into an electronic mailbox without confirming the electronic acknowledgment of receipt during the storage period, where a document is served into the recipient’s own hands and substitute service is excluded, is considered an unjustified refusal to accept the official document being served. In such a case, the official document is deemed to have been served on the day following the expiry of the storage period.
It is recommended that special characters such as “/”, “\”, “:”, “*”, “”, “|”, “?”, “!”, “NULL” and similar characters not be used in file names. It is also recommended that file names be shortened to no more than 64 characters.
The maximum size of a message that can be processed is 50 MB (51,200 kB). However, because the commonly used Base64 encoding increases the size of attached files by approximately one third, files with a total size of about 34 MB can be transmitted in a single message.
When calculating time limits, the applicable legal framework is decisive, as determined by the relevant legislation, including whether the time limit in a particular proceeding is procedural or substantive. In general, a substantive-law time limit is considered to have been met only if the relevant act is actually delivered to the addressee within the prescribed period. To preserve a procedural time limit, it is sufficient for the submission to be handed over, on the last day of the time limit, to the body responsible for delivering it (for example, the postal service).
The confirmation of submission under Section 25(1)Opens in a new window of the e-Government Act is particularly important for calculating and preserving procedural time limits. An electronic submission is deemed to have been filed when it is sent to the electronic mailbox of a public authority. To prove the time of dispatch, the information in the confirmation under Section 5(8)Opens in a new window of the e-Government Act is used. This confirmation is currently generated automatically; until 31 May 2018, it was generated individually at the sender’s request.
For the calculation and preservation of substantive-law time limits, the time at which the submission was served is decisive. Under Section 32(5)Opens in a new window of the e-Government Act, an electronic official message, including all electronic documents, is deemed to have been served:
In the graphical interface of the electronic mailbox on the Central Public Administration Portal, a file extension is automatically added to the file name for files that have no extension or have an incorrect extension. The extension is added according to the principles set out in the portal’s technical information on functionality.Opens in a new window
When the D.Viewer application is used to open or save a signed file without an extension, a file extension is automatically added only for basic file formats, based on the MIME type value.
The technical functionality rules for the electronic mailbox are set out in the document “Documentation on the Functionality of the Electronic MailboxOpens in a new window” [PDF, 886.1 kB].
Yes. A document signed with a qualified electronic signature (QES) replaces a document in printed form bearing a handwritten signature.
If a public authority is serving an official decision into your electronic mailbox for delivery into your own hands, a “Notification of delivery to…” will first appear in your mailbox. To access the contents of the decision, under the e-Government Act you must first confirm receipt of this delivery notification by selecting the “Collect” function and entering your personal security code (BOK). Once you have collected the delivery notification, the relevant official decision, including its attachments, will immediately become available and will also be saved in the “Received Messages” folder.
Note: If you cannot collect the delivery notification, first try clearing your internet browser’s data by deleting cookies and the cache.
The confirmation of submission of an electronic filing is a notification message used to prove the exact time at which an electronic submission was sent. This is particularly important for calculating and preserving certain procedural time limits established by law. The sender of this information is the Ministry of Investments, Regional Development and Informatization of the Slovak Republic, which administers the Central Public Administration Portal (ÚPVS). For this reason, the sender field displays “Central Public Administration Portal”. The confirmation is sent to both the sender and the recipient (the public authority). It contains information about the sender and recipient of the submission, the time when the G2G module received the submission for processing, the message identifier and subject, and may include additional information specified in the data-structure definition.
In this context, delivery means the electronic delivery of an electronic submission or electronic document to a mailbox that has been activated for delivery.
Under the e-Government Act, documents may be delivered to an electronic mailbox either not for delivery into the recipient’s own hands (ordinary delivery) or for delivery into the recipient’s own hands with a fiction of service. In the latter case, if the addressee is not a public authority, the contents of the message become accessible only after the delivery notification has been confirmed by entering the BOK code. The electronic message is deemed to have been served either when the storage period expires without the message being collected or when the delivery notification is confirmed. Under the e-Government Act, the storage period is 15 days and begins on the day following the day on which the electronic message is stored. An electronic message is considered stored from the moment it becomes objectively available in the addressee’s electronic mailbox.
The application of the fiction of service means that if you do not confirm the delivery notification within the storage period, the decision will be deemed served when that period expires without collection; in other words, its legal effects will take effect.
Special legislation may provide for different methods of electronic delivery.
Act No. 305/2013 CollOpens in a new window. on e-Government defines an acknowledgment of receipt for this purpose. The body of the acknowledgment contains a brief text clearly informing the recipient of the date and time when the electronic document was delivered. More detailed information is available in the message details by clicking “Detailed information”. There you can, for example, check the sender, recipient, delivery date, message or electronic-document identifier, and other information. This function works in all types of internet browsers except Internet Explorer.
Yes. You can use a valid qualified certificate that you purchased previously to create a qualified electronic signature on the portal—for example, a certificate stored on a USB device.
Electronic services available to citizens and businesses can be found in the “Electronic ServicesOpens in a new window” section. You can select a service by entering keywords in the search fields, such as the name of the electronic service or the name of the office or institution, or by choosing from the list of life situations.
You can also search for electronic services using the navigation organised by individual life situations.
Public authorities publish their own electronic services on the Central Public Administration Portal. Examples include services provided by the Commercial Register and Trade Licensing Register, the Real Estate Cadastre, the Public Procurement Office, the Central Reporting Office, and the vehicle register.
In addition to these services, every public authority is automatically assigned a “General Agenda” service. Through this service, you can send an electronic submission to the public authority’s electronic mailbox on the Central Portal when the submission does not have a specific form or requirements prescribed by law.
The list of services is continually expanded as electronic services from individual public-administration departments become available. An overview of the published services, together with the name of the relevant public authority, is updated weekly and can be found in the list of published services.
A qualified electronic signature is equivalent to a handwritten signature. A handwritten signature is used to authenticate legal acts in paper form. This means that proceedings (applications, petitions, proposals, etc.) for which a citizen’s handwritten signature is required when handled on paper must be signed with a qualified electronic signature when submitted electronically. It is therefore important to read the instructions for completing the form or service before sending the submission, as public authorities specify the mandatory requirements for the submission there.
If attachments are required, the specific requirements should be stated for each electronic service by the public authority receiving the submission. The formats of electronic documents that obligated entities must accept and be able to read under Act No. 95/2019 CollOpens in a new window. are prescribed by Decree No. 78/2020 Coll.Opens in a new window on Standards for Public Administration Information Technology.
Examples of attachment requirements:
Mandatory formats for electronic documents
Signed electronic documents
Under Decree No. 78/2020 Coll. Opens in a new windowon Standards for Public Administration Information Technology, obligated entities must accept and be able to read the following electronic-document formats when signed with an electronic signature or bearing an electronic seal:
Electronic documents, together with the electronic signature or electronic seal used to authenticate them, must generally be placed in:
For PDF electronic documents, the electronic signature or electronic seal used to authenticate the document may be attached as part of the PDF file itself (.pdf), so it does not have to be placed in a signature container. This is known as a PAdES signature.
The signature formats that public authorities are required to accept are listed in a separate question.
Note: Obligated entities may sign documents in formats other than the mandatory formats only if all parties involved in the relevant communication agree, while being aware of the potential damage and inconsistencies that may arise in subsequent proceedings as a result. Where PDF is used, obligated entities may sign only PDF/A-1, PDF/A-2 and PDF/A-3 files.
What does information about an invalid PDF format in the signature verification result mean?
In the signature verification result, what matters is whether the authentication is valid. The result of validating the object listed in the lower part of the verification result does not affect the validity of the authentication.
Unsigned electronic documents
Under Decree No. 78/2020 Coll. on Standards, there is also an obligation to accept and be able to read unsigned electronic documents where the relevant proceedings permit unsigned electronic documents to be submitted. The formats of unsigned electronic documents that must be accepted, as specified in Sections 18 to 25Opens in a new window of Decree No. 78/2020 Coll. on Standards, include, for example:
Text files in the following formats:
Raster graphics files in the following formats:
Vector graphics files in the following formats:
Submitting documents to electronic mailboxes established under the e-Government Act and logging in to electronic services on the Central Public Administration Portal using an identity card with an electronic chip have been available since 3 February 2014.
