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| Feature | No.64 June 2013 |

Current Sport-Related Legislation in the Slovak Republic

Prof. Paed Dr. Ján Junger, PhD. & Ph Dr. Marcel Nemec, PhD.

Abstract

The physical education and sports movements in the Slovak Republic (SR) are some of the largest and most active civil movements. The popularity of sporting activities amongst the population and the specific organisation of sports and sports-related activities deserve special attention with regard to the legal aspects governing physical education and sport in the Slovak Republic. Given the wording of the country’s constitution, as well as its membership of the European Union since 2004, it is necessary to understand and accept legislation set by the state, but also international law and legal norms of the European Union (EU).

According to data of the National Program for the Development of Sport for the years 2001-2010, there are 7000 active and properly registered sports clubs, physical education unions and elementary organisational departments in the Slovak Republic. These are all established pursuant to Act No. 83/1990 Coll. on the Association of Citizens, as amended by later legislation (this lays out the conditions for establishment and legal status of civil associations). The most recent estimate of the Ministry of Education, Science, Research and Sport says there are approximately 200 000 active competitive athletes. This represents 4 per cent of the entire population of the Slovak Republic. More than 1 400 registered institutions for talented young people provide sport participation for approximately 46 000 athletes, which is 6 percent of the population attending primary and high schools.

The popularity of sporting activities amongst the Slovak population, as well as specific organisation of sports and activities related to sport, deserve special attention from the legal perspective. The Constitution of the Slovak Republic (hereinafter referred to as “the Constitution”) stipulates under Article 13, Section 1a that duties shall be placed in accordance with specific legislation or pursuant to and within the law while preserving elementary rights and freedom. From such a perspective, law is understood as a system of legal norms in a state-regulated or state-approved form as a generally binding rule of conduct, which establishes rights for the participants acting in a specific social relationship, imposes legal duties enforceable by the state power or by public authority. They are social norms requiring certain behaviour by addressees. As the Slovak Republic is a member of the EU, we cannot just take into account the norms established by the state power of Slovakia. We must also consider the international law and legislation of the European Union. In such cases, we refer to legal norms not established by the state, however, acknowledged by the state. Pursuant to Article 7, Section 5 of the Constitution, Slovakia admits that International Agreements on Human Rights and Basic Liberties and international agreements, the conclusion of which do not require legislation, and international contracts that directly establish rights or duties of natural persons, or legal entities and which have not been ratified and declared in a way established by law, shall be preferred to acts. The law of the European Union that is preferred to the law of the Slovak Republic is referred to as law, or legal norms beyond the legal power.

The legal aspects of sport in the SR are regulated by norms of legal and sub-legal power. Aside from the Acts passed by the National Council of SR representing the norms of legal nature, the sub-legal norms include government decrees, generally binding regulations of ministries and other regional authorities of state administration, the generally binding regulation of the higher self-governing territorial units and municipalities, and internal norms, the adoption of which is determined by law (e.g. in the case of professional chambers with obligatory membership). From the aspect of the scope of application, Gábriš (2011) classifies the sources of application into the following categories:

1. sport-related legal regulations dealing with sport and physical culture;
2. general legal regulations containing the matter of sport and physical culture as a complementary element;
3. other general legal regulations, the purpose of which is not to specifically deal with the issues related to sport and physical culture.

Among the acts regulating the organisation and governance of sport in the Slovak Republic (i.e. sport-related legal regulations) are:
Act No. 288/1997 Coll. on Physical Culture as amended and amending the Act No. 455/1991 on Commercial Activity as amended. The exact wording of the Act may be found in the Collection of Laws as No. 28/2009. This act regulates the administration of physical culture and scope of the state administrative authorities, higher self-governing territorial units, municipalities, civil associations active in the field of physical culture and other legal entities and natural persons in charge of its application.

Despite the fact that experts consider the term physical culture to be archaic, the term denotes the most general term to include organised and non-organised individual or group-based activity connected with physical education, hiking, sports and/or recreational activity. Physical culture also includes the preparation of experts working in the field of physical culture, research and scientific activity, securing health-care, material and technical conditions needed for its development. The tasks in the field of physical culture are fulfilled by the authorities of state administration, higher self-governing territorial units, municipalities, civil associations and other legal entities.

What is important is the status and role of the higher self-governing territorial unit and municipalities. Besides the duty to prepare the concept and programme for development of physical culture, their duties are to:

- support the organisation of sporting events of regional importance;
- promote sport participation by physically handicapped citizens;
- secure and operate state-owned physical education, hiking and sporting facilities;
- create conditions for the development of sport for all.

Act No. 300/2008 Coll. on the Organisation and Support of Sport as amended draws on and further complements the provisions of the Act No. 288/1997 on Physical Culture in the following areas:

- state support of competitive and elite sport, support of sport talents and sport participation of children, pupils and students;
- preparation of athletes on the national teams of Slovaki;
- anti-doping measures and the status of the Anti-doping agency of the Slovak Republic;
- settlement of disputes in the area of sport;
- establishment and administration of the public administration system on sport.

Pursuant to this law, the state acts through the:

1. Government of the Slovak Republic
2. Ministry of Education of the Slovak Republic
3. Ministry of Defense of the Slovak Republic
4. Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Slovak Republic.

The Slovak government creates national teams, prepares sporting talent, supports sport participation by pupils and students and delivers construction of sports infrastructure of special importance. The Ministry of Education of SR as the central governing body of the state administration for sport organises and controls the implementation of national policy and coordinates the activity of other authorities of public administration and other legal entities in charge of its implementation. The Ministry also: administers the information system; provides sport funding from the state budget and controls the effectiveness of funding use for sports; coordinates and oversees the implementation of the National Program for the Development of Spor;, creates conditions for sport development and for the selection of sports talents and future members of national teams; is held responsible, in cooperation with national sports federations, for the operation and funding of the Sports Center for Sports Talents and athletes on national teams; approves the Unitary Educational System for experts in the Slovak Republic; supports the organisation of sporting events; cooperates in terms of the construction of sports infrastructure; designs the anti-doping program; publishes the list of doping substances and those with therapeutic exemption; establishes and co-establishes organisations responsible for fulfilling roles in the area of sport, especially in the operation of the information system, education of sports experts and development of science and research in sport.

The role in the area of sport is fulfilled by the following legal entities:

1. Slovak Olympic Committee;
2. Slovak Paralympic Committee;
3. National sports federations;
4. Sports clubs.

The Act specifies the roles of The National Sports Associations, their competences relative to national team members, support of sporting talent, organisation of national sporting events, adherence to the rules and discipline in the sports competitions. The Act also specifies the education of experts, anti-doping policy, funding and administration of its own property.

Pursuant to this Act, a sports club is a legal entity established with the aim of pursuing sport and participation in sports events organised by the National Sports Association or the international sports association. A sports club may be established as a civil association or as a business company for a purpose different from the business objective. The Act regulates the sources of funding and the options for its provision. The funding may be provided for:

1. national teams;
2. support of sporting talent;
3. organisation of sports competitions and sporting events;
4. sport participation by children, pupils and students;
5. construction, reconstruction and modernisation of sporting infrastructure of special importance;
6. education in the field of sport;
7. doping prevention and doping control;
8. financial rewards for athletes and coaches;
9. support of editorial, museum-related and educational activity in sport.

Pursuant to the law, sports infrastructure refers to stadiums, sports halls, gymnasiums, shooting galleries and other indoor or outdoor sporting venues designated for athletic preparation and organisation of sports competitions and sporting events in the particular sports. Sports infrastructure is governed by the state authorities, higher self-governing territorial units and municipalities, national sports federations and sports clubs as well as other persons. The sources of funding are the budget of public administration, financial resources of national sports federations and sports clubs and resources of other persons. The sports infrastructure of special importance refers to sports infrastructure necessary for international sporting events. Such sports infrastructure is administered by particular ministries, national sports federations and sports clubs. The Act also regulates the status of an athlete as a national team member; his or her preparation and participation in an international sporting event is considered as an act in the public interest pursuant to the Section 136 of the Labor Code.

This Act was followed by the Act No. 528/2010 Coll. that regulates the sources of sport funding, grants and calls for the provision of funding.

The above-mentioned acts are legal regulations, which may be characterised as general framework organisational acts primarily targeted at the area of sport and physical culture.

The second category of legal documents consists of specialised regulations, among which are:
Act No. 479/2008 Coll. on the Organisation of Public Sporting and Hiking Events as amended. The Act regulates the duties of organisers of a sporting, or physical education event, his or her personal competences, duties and restrictions for the event participants, the persons eligible for organising an event, the role of the municipality and the Police Department, and special provisions on the security and administrative offences violating the duties pursuant to this law.

Pursuant to this Act, a public sporting or hiking event (hereinafter referred to as an “event”) refers to a physical education related, sport-based or hiking-based competition, meeting, tournament or race or other event associated with physical and recreational activity of natural persons in the field of physical culture accessible to the public.

Under this Act, a hiking event refers to an event with more than 500 participants, if organised at hiking trails and other for hiking designated and publicly accessible spaces and if it denotes a day-long or several days long trekking across the municipal area or across the area of several municipalities.

An event shall be considered accessible to the public if held for non-designated participants or for participants according to the registration at the particular legal entity established pursuant to specific regulations.

The provisions of this Act do not concern events not held at the facilities of the Armed Forces of SR, schools and school facilities, facilities of social services, and facilities of sports clubs and physical education unions, in case their athletes, employees or family members are the organisers and participants in the event.

The following sections of the Act define the duties of the organiser in relation to the municipality, the organising service, the competences of the organiser and the Police Department, prohibitions for event participants, the roles of the municipality and specific provisions on the security of event participants:

- Act No. 355/2007 Coll. on Protection, Support and Promotion of Public Health as amended regulates the duties for the operations managers of either outdoor or indoor sporting facilities designated for sporting events within physical culture, with regard to the conditions of the indoor environment, the spatial arrangement and functional division, equipment and operation of the sporting facility. The operations managers are obliged to provide equipment that would in no way harm the health of the users in accordance with the instructions of the manufacturer. The managers are also obliged to establish working regulations and submit the regulations to the regional office of public health services for approval or change.

- Act No. 377/2004 Coll. on Protection of Non-smokers as amended. Pursuant to section 7f, the act prohibits smoking in enclosed sporting facilities and requires the facility operation manager to notify the general public about the ban on smoking using an appropriate health sign posted in a visible place.

- The Regulation of the Ministry of Health Care No. 525/2007 Coll. on details related to sporting facilities. The regulation refers to microclimatic conditions, heating and ventilation, functional division, equipment of sporting facilities and the terms of operational regulations.

- The Regulation of the Ministry of Education No. 542/2008 Coll. on Doping Control Procedures and the Treatment of Athlete's Biological Samples.

- The Regulation of the Ministry of Internal Affairs No. 332/2009 Coll. on details pertaining to Video Camera Security Systems.

The general legal regulations dealing with sport-related issues represent regulations, in the provisions of which the status of sports organisations is considered secondary to the scope of application. For instance, Act No. 278/1993 Coll. on the Administration of the National Property as amended, Act No. 138/1991 Coll. on the Municipal Property as amended, Act No. 543/2002 Coll. on the Protection of Nature and Country as amended, or Act No. 372/1990 Coll. on Offences as amended.

The last category of legal regulations related to sport consists of other general legal regulations that may not include the term physical education in their provisions. Despite this fact, they refer to regulations that address also the subjects of sports movement. They are not addressees due to their own sporting activity, but due to the fact that they are regulated by generally defined personal effect of the aforementioned acts. As reported by Gábriš (2011), such regulations include the Constitution of the Slovak Republic, the Civil Code, the Penal Code, and so forth.

Adequate knowledge and information about the legal regulations not only facilitates work with subjects in question, but also positively affects personal relationships by minimising misunderstandings that arise due to the absence of knowledge about the legal regulations in force.

References

Gábriš, T. (2011). Športové právo. Bratislava: Eurokódex s.r.o.

White Book on Sports. Retrieved May 22, 2012 from
http://ec.europa.eu/sport/documents/white-paper/whitepaper-short_sk.pdf.

European Sports Charter. Retrieved May 22, 2012 from
http://www.minedu.sk/ index.php?lang=sk&rootId=4843

National Program for Sport Development in SR. Retrieved May 22, 2012 from http://www.minedu.sk/index.php?lang=sk&rootId=599

The Constitution of Slovak Republic. Retrieved May 22, 2012 from
http://www.ucps.sk/ blog-147-1-default/24_Ustava_SR__CR-cclanky.html&page_limit=15

Contact

Prof. Paed Dr. Ján Junger, PhD.
University of Presov in Presov
Faculty of Sports
Ul. 17. Novembra č. 13
081 16 Prešov
Slovakia

Ph Dr. Marcel Nemec, PhD.
University of Presov in Presov
Faculty of Sports
Ul. 17. Novembra č. 13
081 16 Prešov
Slovakia

Email: marcel.nemec@unipo.sk

http://www.icsspe.org/