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Slovakia's revised AI bill moves to the Legislative Council without creating a new central authority, leaving MIRRI and existing bodies to run AI supervision
The interesting sentence in the Slovak announcement is a negative one. There will be no new office. Supervision goes to bodies that already exist, with the ministry at the top.
Bottom line: Not law, and not binding on anyone. This is a ministry press release about a bill that has just been reworked and sent onward in the legislative process. It still has to clear the Legislative Council of the Government, then the Economic and Social Council, before it reaches the government itself.
Who this affects: Slovak technology and regulatory counsel, in-house lawyers at providers and deployers of high-risk AI systems in Slovakia, public sector data managers, and compliance leads at companies that also fall under the Data Act and the Data Governance Act.
Issue date: 13 August 2026, the date on the MIRRI press release. No deadline is given for the next stage and none is given for entry into force.
What changed: The reworked draft abandons the creation of a new central state administration body. Key tasks in AI state administration and in central data management and governance go to MIRRI together with other competent bodies. The draft also states market surveillance and the competences of individual bodies more clearly, particularly for high-risk AI systems.
Analysis: MIRRI is candid that the new European duties bring new tasks and a need for expert and personnel capacity, and that the money for it is still subject to negotiation with the Ministry of Finance. A supervision model built on existing bodies is cheaper to legislate and harder to staff.
Primary sources: MIRRI SR press release, 13 August 2026 (Slovak)
- Instrument (EN)
- Press release: Slovakia is a step closer to clear rules for artificial intelligence. The AI act heads into the next phase.
- Authority
- Ministerstvo investicii, regionalneho rozvoja a informatizacie SR (MIRRI SR)
- Jurisdiction
- Slovak Republic
- Status
- Draft bill, reworked, moving to the Legislative Council of the Government of the SR
- Bindingness
- None. A bill in progress binds nobody.
- Issue date / next deadline
- 13 August 2026. No date is given for the Legislative Council or the Economic and Social Council sittings.
- EU instruments cited
- The Artificial Intelligence Act, the Data Act and the Data Governance Act
- Named officials
- Minister Samuel Migal; government plenipotentiary for AI Radoslav Stefanek
- Primary source
- https://mirri.gov.sk/aktuality/ministerstvo/slovensko-je-o-krok-blizsie-k-jasnym-pravidlam-pre-umelu-inteligenciu-zakon-o-ai-smeruje-do-dalsej-fazy/
What the ministry actually announced
MIRRI says it has incorporated amendments and is moving the draft AI act forward. On its account the draft divides state competences more clearly, sets up oversight of artificial intelligence, and establishes rules for data management.
The bill now goes to the Legislative Council of the Government of the SR, and after that to the Economic and Social Council of the SR. MIRRI says it hopes the remaining disputes can be removed in the further process, and that quality legislation will then be submitted to the government.
Read that sequence carefully before treating any of this as settled. Two further bodies have to see the text before it even reaches the cabinet, and the ministry itself concedes there are unresolved disputes.
No new office
One of the key changes in the reworked draft is a system without the creation of a new central state administration body. Slovakia will not build another separate office; it will use existing state structures and capacities.
MIRRI, together with other competent bodies, takes the key role in AI state administration and in central data management and governance.
The plenipotentiary for AI, Radoslav Stefanek, framed it as an efficiency choice, saying the ministry does not want to create another office and wants to meet the European rules by making maximum use of existing state structures without generating unnecessary administration.
Where the AI Act sits in this
The bill responds to obligations arising for Slovakia from European legislation, in particular the Artificial Intelligence Act, the Data Act and the Data Governance Act. Its stated aim is a clear and functional framework for applying European rules in Slovak conditions.
In the AI field specifically, the draft states market surveillance and the competences of individual bodies more clearly, above all for high-risk AI systems. MIRRI presents this as answering a practical question: citizens, businesses and public institutions should be able to tell who is responsible for what and whom to approach.
The data side gets its own justification. The legislation is said to create conditions for coordination, supervision and support in the use and management of data, with the state ensuring effective application of the European rules and conditions for responsible use of data in the public sector.
The funding sentence deserves attention
Introducing the new European rules will also mean new tasks and a need to secure the necessary expert and personnel capacity. Concrete financial provision will therefore be the subject of further negotiations between MIRRI and the Ministry of Finance of the SR.
That is the ministry's own statement, and it is unusual to see it printed in a launch release. It tells you the supervision architecture has been decided before the resourcing has.
For a company preparing for AI Act supervision in Slovakia, the practical consequence is timing risk rather than legal risk. Duties under the AI Act apply on the EU timetable regardless of whether the national supervisor is staffed.
What we did not verify
We opened the MIRRI press release of 13 August 2026 in full, in Slovak, and every fact and both quotations come from it.
We did not open the bill itself, its explanatory memorandum, or the interministerial comment procedure file, and we did not open any Legislative Council or Economic and Social Council agenda. So we cannot say what the operative text provides, which body gets which competence, or what the remaining disputes are about.
We will not repeat the widely circulated claim that a specific proposed authority was deleted from an earlier version. The release says only that the reworked draft does not create a new central state administration body; it does not name any body that was dropped, and it does not cite the legislative process file number. We did not verify either point against a primary document.
Slovakia has answered the institutional question and deferred the resourcing one. If you are mapping AI Act supervisors across the EU, record MIRRI plus existing competent bodies for Slovakia, and record it as proposed rather than enacted. The bill has the Legislative Council, the Economic and Social Council and the cabinet still ahead of it, and the ministry says disputes remain open.
Source File
Open the MIRRI release dated 13.8.2026 and confirm three things: that the draft does not create a new central body, that MIRRI takes the key role alongside other competent bodies, and that the next stops are the Legislativna rada vlady SR and then the Hospodarska a socialna rada SR.
Nasim cielom je, aby Slovensko malo jasne, zrozumitelne, funkcne a vseobecne platne pravidla pre umelu inteligenciu a data. (Our goal is for Slovakia to have clear, comprehensible, functional and generally applicable rules for artificial intelligence and data.) ยท Samuel Migal, minister of investments, regional development and informatisation of the SR, 13 August 2026
FAQ
Is the Slovak AI act in force?
No. On 13 August 2026 MIRRI described it as a reworked draft heading to the Legislative Council of the Government, then to the Economic and Social Council, and then to the government. Nothing in the release binds anyone.
Who will supervise AI in Slovakia under this draft?
MIRRI together with other competent bodies. The release says the reworked draft deliberately avoids creating a new central state administration body and instead uses existing state structures, with MIRRI taking the key role in AI state administration and in central data management.
Does the bill only cover the AI Act?
No. MIRRI says it responds to obligations from European legislation including the Artificial Intelligence Act, the Data Act and the Data Governance Act, and that it creates conditions for coordination, supervision and support in the use and management of data.
Is the supervision budget settled?
Not on the ministry's own account. It says the new rules bring new tasks and a need for expert and personnel capacity, and that concrete financial provision will be the subject of further negotiations with the Ministry of Finance of the SR.
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