After a year in office, the Ministry of Informatization reports settled competencies and partnerships across departments. Priorities are high-quality e-services, sharing “true” data among institutions, and greater cybersecurity. The state wants to open its services to the private sector while keeping registers as a reliable source of truth.
End of departmentalism: cooperation instead of silos
The initial disputes over competencies have given way to practice: the departments have set up cooperation and, in life-event situations, now routinely share data as well as access. Differing views with key partners, such as the Ministry of the Interior, proved useful because they move citizen-focused solutions forward. The goal is clear: do not ask people for data the state already has, but ensure that offices exchange it among themselves.
Investment conditions tied to EU funds also help: anyone building systems with registered objects from public sources must make the data available through central components. If sharing is refused without a legal reason, funding may be withdrawn. Instead of directives, however, the department is counting on a motivational approach—show the benefits, break the data silo, and deliver value to the citizen.
Funding, data, and the quality of e-services
Financing comes mainly from Program Slovensko 2021–2027 (with the N+2 rule through 2029) and from Plán obnovy, where priorities were pushed through even in the final phase. The first is the “essence of truth”—high-quality, shared data that the state maintains in registers and that all institutions use. The second is a shift from quantity to quality in e-services: we do not need more forms for the sake of forms, but to build what people actually use and what is simple to operate.
The state also wants to combine intuitive interfaces with the development of digital skills, so that the gap between users and services does not widen. Quality should be visible outwardly as well—including a multilingual environment for national minorities, such as the Hungarian one. The goal is for citizens to handle matters without running from office to office and without repeatedly filling in the same data.
Open interfaces, cybersecurity, and new ambitions
Openness is to be pursued on two layers: first open data and open API, then making the core of e-services accessible so that the private sector can consume them. The latter would act as a “broker” of the user experience and deliver modern interfaces, while the state maintains reliable registers and security. A test of the innovation potential was a call from Plán obnovy with an allocation of 52 million euros, which attracted applications totaling 240 million—especially in cybersecurity, big data, and sensor technology.
The ministry also emphasizes education and the management of cybersecurity directly within the departments. A personal ambition is to automate access rights and obligations for public officials (such as mayors) without additional bureaucracy. Another vision is telemedicine—realistically in a pilot form with the involvement of insurers and the healthcare system, to improve patient comfort, the quality of data about their condition, and to ease the work of doctors and nurses.
