Introduction

The Parliamentary Institute is an analytical and information unit of the Chancellery of the

National Council of the Slovak Republic. The status of the Parliamentary Institute is defined by

Section 144 of Act No. 350/1996 Coll. of the National Council of the Slovak Republic on the Rules of

Procedure of the National Council of the Slovak Republic, pursuant to which it performs

information and educational tasks related to the activities of the National Council of the Slovak

Republic (NC SR) and its members. The department also includes the Parliamentary Library

and the Parliamentary Archive.

Analytical,

Parliamentary Library

Parliamentary Archive

informational, and

educational activities

The Parliamentary Institute is located on the grounds of Bratislava Castle, in the building near

Mikulášska Gate. The Parliamentary Library is located on the Northern Ramparts, and the

Parliamentary Archive can be found on the Western Terrace of Bratislava Castle.

In terms of personnel, the Parliamentary Institute currently consists of a department director,

a secretariat, and seven analysts specializing in various areas of public policy. The

Parliamentary Library consists of a department head and ﬁve employees. The Parliamentary

Archive consists of a department head and three employees. In the following section, we will

brieﬂy outline the main areas of activity of the Parliamentary Institute's analysts.

ANALYTICAL AND

INFORMATION

ACTIVITIES

EDUCATION OF

VARIOUS TARGET

GROUPS

INTERPARLIAMENTARY

COOPERATION AND

DEVELOPMENT

PUBLICATIONS

PROJECTS

Analytical and information activities

As part of its analytical and information activities, the Parliamentary Institute regularly

prepares:

•

proactive materials, prepared on the department's own initiative, focusing on current

topics discussed in the NC SR and its commiꢀees;

•

responses to requests from oﬃcials, commiꢀees, and members of the NC SR;

responses to requests from other organizational units of the Chancellery of the NC SR;

responses to requests from foreign parliaments, questionnaires from international

organizations and other institutions.

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In terms of content, comparative analyses predominate, containing comparisons of public

policies, instruments, or legal regulations of a particular current issue in selected countries

(e.g., regulation of lobbying, reimbursement of medicines, financing of support facilities

for schools, family businesses, water and sewage prices, support for cycling, and others).

The Parliamentary Institute's materials are available on the website of the NC SR .

Publications

At the beginning of each electoral term, the Parliamentary

Institute prepares a handbook entitled Practical Guide to the

Work of a Member of Parliament and a publication entitled

How Parliament Works , which are intended primarily for newly

elected members of parliament and new parliamentary

assistants. The department also compiles the Annual Report of

the NC SR and the Chancellery of the NC SR for the past year.

In addition, the Parliamentary Institute occasionally publishes books in connection with

important anniversaries of Slovak statehood, such as The Constitution of the Slovak Republic

and its Twenty-Five Years, Jozef M. Hurban – First Speaker of the Slovak National Council,

and The Slovak Parliament Through the Ages.

Educational activities

Induction seminars for newly

elected members of parliament

and their assistants

Internships for university

students

Discussions, round tables for the

(expert) public

At the beginning of each electoral term, the Parliamentary Institute organizes induction

training seminars for newly elected members of the NC SR and their assistants. These

seminars provide information on the status and competences of the NC SR and its commiꢀees,

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the competencies of members of parliament, and the functions of the Chancellery of the NC

SR, as well as other practical issues related to parliamentary work.

The Parliamentary Institute occasionally organizes round tables or discussions on various

topics related to parliamentary proceedings for a wider professional audience. The topics are

selected according to the requests of members of parliament and the availability of experts in

accordance with the specialization, work plan, and capacities of the department.

internship for university students lasts from October to May

the selection process

applications are due by mid-May

is in June

the intership program

is in its 28th year

we have more than 800

alumni

alumni recieve a

certificate of completion

The Parliamentary Institute oversees internships for university students at the Chancellery

of the NC SR, which aims to link theory with practice and familiarize students with the

activities of the NC SR and its Chancellery. In the 27 years since its inception, more than 800

students have completed such an internship. The internship typically lasts from October to

May. It is preceded by a selection process, which usually takes place at the beginning of June

on the basis of applications submiꢀed by candidates by mid-May. Interns work in various

departments of the Chancellery and receive a certiﬁcate of completion at the end of their

internship. Information about the internship is available on the website of the NC SR.

Interparliamentary cooperation

The NC SR has extensive and long-standing experience in parliamentary

development cooperation, dating back to 2004. These activities are

professionally overseen by the Parliamentary Institute, with the

practical involvement of members of the NC SR and employees of the

Chancellery of the NC SR. It organizes seminars, workshops, and training

courses for the parliaments of recipient countries with the aim of

strengthening their institutional capacity and assisting in the development of legislative,

information, analytical, library, and archival services. These activities are ﬁnanced by the EU,

the National Democratic Institute (NDI) or other development programs.

Between 2004 and 2019, the NC SR, mainly through the Parliamentary Institute, co-organized

more than 40 events for MPs and parliamentary staﬀ from the Western Balkans, Mongolia,

Iraq, and Lebanon. Between September 2017 and December 2019, we successfully

implemented an EU twinning project for the Moldovan Parliament in consortium with the

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Czech and Hungarian parliaments, which included 70 diﬀerent activities. Since 2019, the

Parliamentary Institute and other staﬀ of the Chancellery of the NC SR have participated in

various events, mainly online, for North Macedonia, Montenegro, Panama, Gambia,

Malaysia, the Maldives , and Bhutan. In addition, we had also been involved in an EU

twinning project aimed at strengthening the role of the Parliament of Bosnia and Herzegovina

and a development project for the Albanian Parliamentary Institute.

The latest activities are related to the

partnerships of the NC SR within the EU project

called „INTER PARES .“ The Chancellery of the

NC SR, in particular the Parliamentary Institute, has participated in (online) projects with the

parliaments of Panama, Bhutan, Malaysia, the Maldives, and Uzbekistan within the

framework of INTER PARES. Cooperation with the Parliament of Benin has oﬃcially

launched in the fall of 2025.

Parliamentary Library

The Parliamentary Library is a separate

department of the Parliamentary Institute and

dates back to 1991. Under the Library Act, it has

the status of a special library and is not open to

the public. It provides library and information

services to members of the NC SR, their

assistants, employees of the Chancellery of the

NC SR, selected users (state administration

officials, researchers of the Slovak Academy of

Sciences), and university students on site.

The library fulﬁls its tasks by providing professional services, primarily from its specialized

collection focused on law, political science, parliamentarianism and parliamentary documents, EU

affairs, economics, social policy, and social sciences. Until mid-2020, it had the right to receive

mandatory copies. The entire collection currently contains more than 96,400 library units.

The online catalogue of the ProfLIB automated library system, introduced in 2008, is available

on the website of the NC SR at: hꢀps://kniznica.nrsr.sk . Here you can also ﬁnd information

about the activities of the Parliamentary Library: library and lending rules, library services,

catalogues, research, foreign activities, library projects, and contacts for information sources

in the Slovak Republic and abroad.

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•

The Parliamentary Library is not a public library (it serves members

of parliament, parliamentary assistants, employees of the

Chancellery of the NC SR, and selected users)

It currently contains more than 96,400 library items.

•

Opening hours for the above-mentioned users are Monday to

Friday: 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. and 1:00 p.m. to 3:30 p.m.

The Parliamentary Library is located in newly built oﬃces and a

reading room on the Northern Ramparts of Bratislava Castle.

In addition to standard library services, the Parliamentary Library regularly publishes

thematic research focused on current topics discussed in NC SR and its commiꢀees, as well as

overview materials entitled New Books and Contents of Legal Journals for members of the

NC SR and employees of the Chancellery of the NC SR.

The Parliamentary Library cooperates with various libraries and information institutions in

Slovakia, selected institutions of the European Union, and foreign parliamentary libraries.

Since 1992, it has been a member of the IFLA (International Federation of Library Associations)

Section on Library and Research Services for Parliaments.

Other important projects include the Joint Czech-Slovak Digital Parliamentary Library , which

is a publicly accessible electronic database containing the full texts of parliamentary

documents and stenographic reports from 1848 to the present, and the Portal of Digital

Libraries of the V4 Plus , which provides access to the digital parliamentary libraries of the

following countries: the Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary, Austria, and Slovakia.

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Parliamentary Archive

The Parliamentary Archive is part of the Parliamentary

Institute, located on the West Terrace of Bratislava

Castle. The Parliamentary Archive ensures the archiving

of all materials and documents that have been delivered

to and produced by the NC SR, its committees, and

officials of the NC SR, as well as documents delivered to and

processed by the Chancellery of the NC SR since 1993.

In addition, it also archives the project documentation of

all buildings invested in by the Chancellery of the NC SR since 1947.

The Parliamentary Archive is classiﬁed under Act No. 395/2002 Coll. on Archives and Registries

and on the Amendment of Certain Acts, as amended, as a specialized public archive, and since

2011, it has been a member of the International Council on Archives (ICA).

Processed materials in paper and digital form (if available) are made available by the

Parliamentary Archive to the Speaker and Deputy Speakers of the NC SR, the Chairpersons

and Deputy Chairpersons of commiꢀees, members of parliament and their assistants,

employees of the Chancellery of the NC SR, and, with the consent of the Secretary General

of the Chancellery of the NC SR, to other bodies, institutions, and the public. The

Parliamentary Archive monitors the development and application of electronic records and

applies the recommendations of the Ministry of the Interior of the Slovak Republic and legal

standards to the conditions of the NC SR and its Chancellery.

original documents from the activities

specialized public archive

of the NC SR and the Chancellery of the

NC SR from 1993 - 2023

Parliamentary