Electronic mailboxes postponed

Entrepreneurs will have more time to activate their electronic mailboxes that should serve for communication between firms and state administration authorities. Originally, they expected to start delivering all necessary documents as of August 1, but now they have time until January 1, 2017 to get new ID cards with electronic chips, activate the cards and obtain a personal security code and guaranteed electronic signature, the Sme daily reported.

This duty concerns 574,000 people who are executive managers or statutory representatives of the 270,000 legal entities recorded in the business registry, the TASR newswire wrote.

This, however, is not the first time the state has postponed the deadline for launching the e-mailboxes. The first deadline was set on August 1, 2015, but it was later delayed to August 1, 2016.

One of the reasons why Deputy PM for Investments and Informatisation Peter Pellegrini decided to delay the launch concerned the problems of companies and their authorised representatives. So far only 1,584 legal entities have activated their electronic letterboxes, he added, as reported by TASR.

“Only a few authorised representatives of people representing companies have electronic ID card,” Pellegrini has said recently, as quoted by Sme. This points to one big problem and also the fact that people are not interested in ID cards with electronic chips.

Currently, only some 1.5 million people own such ID cards, but not all of them have activated the cards. Pellegrini wants to increase the number, as he promised when taking the post. In regard to corporate entities, he wants to achieve this goal by application of the law which makes them activate the e-mailboxes and thus use the electronic ID cards, explained Monika Hucáková, Pellegrini’s spokesperson.

As for the natural persons and sole proprietors, they should be motivated to use the ID cards to receive the best quality digital services possible, Hucáková added.

The postponement of the deadline will help entrepreneurs as they will have more time to prepare for the changes, said Ján Hargaš of Slovensko.Digital initiative. Yet he considers the decision non-standard.

“It would be better if the dates would be changed via amending the respective law,” Hargaš told Sme.

Pellegrini, however, responds that the amendment would be necessary only if other conditions were changing.

Hargaš also opines that Pellegrini’s office should inform more about the activation of e-mailboxes to ensure that all companies will be ready for it. The office, according to Hucáková, has already launched the campaign for example by publishing the instructions at the Vicepremier.sk website, as reported by Sme.

Meanwhile, state authorities will have to use the e-mailboxes as of November 2016. Some of them, including courts or the Interior Ministry, have already been using it. On the other hand, three-quarters of all authorities have not even opened their mailboxes, Sme wrote.