Laws and regulations are essential tools for governments to promote societal well-being and economic growth. A well-developed regulatory policy – the process governments use to create policies and, if necessary, regulations – is therefore crucial for achieving policy objectives. In its ongoing effort to improve its regulatory system, the Slovak Republic asked the OECD in 2019 to assess its capacity to develop and implement new regulations compared to the practices and approaches of other countries.

This OECD Regulatory Policy Review of the Slovak Republic assesses the country’s regulatory management capacity by taking stock of regulatory policies, institutions and tools, describing trends and recent developments, and identifying gaps in relation to good practices. Improving the entire regulatory policy cycle will ensure that regulations are built on a foundation of solid evidence and public participation and are designed to improve the security, health and well-being of citizens at a reasonable cost.

This chapter describes the political context and the previous macroeconomic context of the Slovak Republic. It also describes the current regulatory reform efforts and points to the specific economic challenges that the country faces in relation to its evolving economic landscape, the working population, and the well-being and trust within public institutions.

This chapter describes the administrative and legal environment for regulatory reform in the Slovak Republic and assesses the communication with stakeholders on strategy and policies. It also looks at the policies, processes and institutions for evaluating the efficiency and effectiveness of programmes aimed at improving the regulatory environment. The role of e-government in support of regulatory policy and governance is briefly reviewed. Finally, it provides recommendations for the Slovak Republic to develop a formal and explicit regulatory policy.

This chapter examines the institutional framework for regulatory policy in the Slovak Republic. Regulatory management needs to find its place in a country’s institutional architecture, and capacities for promoting and implementing Better Regulation need to be build up. Mechanisms and institutions need to be established to actively provide oversight of regulatory policy procedures and goals, support and implement regulatory policy and thereby foster regulatory quality.

This chapter sheds light on the processes in place in the Slovak Republic for consultation and dialogue with affected stakeholders and the general public and to what extent the outcomes can influence policy makers. It describes and evaluates the regulatory and institutional framework for stakeholder engagement, the practices in place for e-consultations, and the role of stakeholder engagement in ex ante and ex post regulatory impact assessment.

This chapter reviews the processes for developing new regulations in the Slovak Republic, with a particular focus on forward planning, administrative procedures and ex ante impact assessment. The framework for developing regulations is well-established in the Slovak Republic, although the practical implementation needs reinforcement. Analytical units in many ministries are a unique asset to the policy development system in the Slovak Republic.

This chapter focuses on how the Slovak government rationalises its existing stock of regulations, including how it undertakes reforms to improve regulation in specific areas or sectors to reduce administrative burdens or evaluate the overall effectiveness of regulation. The Slovak Republic has focused almost exclusively on administrative burden reduction, but the RIA 2020 Strategy introduces new ex post evaluation requirements.

This chapter reviews Slovak Republic’s strategy for regulatory compliance, enforcement and inspections. It pinpoints the need for a whole-of-government policy on reforming inspections and promoting compliance.

This chapter looks at the interface between the national and both the sub-national and European level in the Slovak Republic. It explains the organisation of regulatory attributions and the oversight mechanisms in place for regulation at the subnational level and points to challenges and opportunities for regulatory policy in Slovakia’s municipalities, counties and cities. The chapter also describes and evaluates the processes in place for negotiating the national position, transposing EU directives into national law and ensuring consistency with national legislation in the Slovak Republic. Finally, it gives recommendations for improvement of the multilevel regulatory governance set-up.

This chapter provide Slovakia with frontier OECD research on innovative approaches to policy making, that can help support the development of strategies to “future proof” regulation. It presents three complementary approaches to consider individually or as a bundle, including introducing forward-looking processes such as strategic foresight and anticipatory innovation, incorporating future proofing as part of regulatory policy making, and using innovative tools such as behavioural insights to understand human behaviour. Finally, it gives recommendations for developing and implementing strategies to begin using these various approaches in practice.