BRATISLAVA, August 6, (WEBNOVINY) — The Cabinet will hold an unscheduled meeting on Tuesday. The reason is the situation that arose as a result of a decision of the Constitutional Court, relating to immunity of the state against distraint proceedings. The Cabinet will have to respond to the decision because in practice it can lead to partial loss of protection over state property against the possibility of distraint proceedings. In its decision, the Constitutional Court declared unconstitutional two provisions of two laws that guarantee such „immunity“.
Parliament now has six months to correct the law, otherwise it will become not only ineffective, but in the contested provisions would also formally lose validity. The decision of the Constitutional Court concerns laws that are in the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Finance. „The Justice Ministry as well as the Ministry of Economy is working intensively with the Finance Ministry on harmonization of the legislation with the Constitution so as to reasonably protect interests of the state,“ Pavol Kubik, chief of Press Department the Ministry of Justice told SITA. He said they would inform about details be as soon as it becomes possible. The legislative changes that would respond to the findings, need to be approved by the Cabinet and then by Parliament. „The state has sufficient legal instruments to deal with the arisen situation. We will inform about other technical and procedural steps,“ said Beatrice Hudakova, spokeswoman for Prime Minister Robert Fico.
The Constitutional Court issued its decision at the initiative of the District Court Bratislava I. It ruled that in conflict with the Constitution are provisions of the Law on Administration of State Property, which guarantee that the state property under the administration of state budgetary organizations, state funds, public institutions or other entities, is exempt from enforcement of debt collection, bankruptcy or settlement proceedings pursuant to special regulations. Such special regulations are the Civil Court Procedure and Execution Order. In the Law on the State Treasury, the Constitutional Court declared unconstitutional the fact that apart from certain exceptions, money in a client’s account in the State Treasury is exempt from debt collection by court-ordered debiting the account.
SITA
