Slovenia — Open Records Law

Response Timeline

Initial Response

20 days

Extension

30 days

Residency Required

None

20 working days from receipt of a complete request. May be extended by up to 30 additional working days for partial access implementation or comprehensive documentation compilation. Informal/oral requests must be answered immediately. If no response within the deadline, the request is deemed refused and the applicant may appeal. Incomplete requests: the body gives the applicant a minimum of 3 working days to supplement (Art. 18).

How to Submit a Request

Accepted Methods

Requests may be filed in writing or orally (Art. 14-16). No reason for the request is required (Art. 17). Oral requests provide weaker appeal rights than written requests. Bodies must maintain publicly-accessible catalogues of information (Art. 8) and proactively publish key documents online (Art. 10).

Required Elements

Name of the body to which the request is addressed
Applicant name and address (or company name and registered seat for legal entities)
Description of the information sought
Preferred method of access (inspection, transcript, photocopy, or electronic)

Fees

Slovenia charges only material costs for reproduction, not search or review time. Costs are waived entirely when total is under EUR 20 including VAT. On-site inspection is always free. Fee schedule set by Decree on the provision and re-use of public information (Official Gazette RS No. 24/16, amended 146/22), Article 17.

Fee Waivers

No charge when total material costs are under EUR 20 including VAT
Consultation/inspection of documents at body premises is always free
No charge for re-use ensuring freedom of expression, culture, art, and media (Art. 34a)

Exemptions

Classified information (Art. 6(1)(1))

Information classified as secret under the Act governing classified data
Business/trade secrets (Art. 6(1)(2))

Information designated as business secret under company law
Personal data (Art. 6(1)(3))

Personal data where disclosure would violate data protection legislation
Statistical confidentiality (Art. 6(1)(4))

Information covered by statistical confidentiality rules
Tax procedure confidentiality (Art. 6(1)(5))

Information covered by tax procedure confidentiality or constituting a tax secret
Criminal proceedings (Art. 6(1)(6))

Information whose disclosure would prejudice criminal prosecution procedures
Administrative proceedings (Art. 6(1)(7))

Information whose disclosure would prejudice administrative procedures
Civil/court proceedings (Art. 6(1)(8))

Information whose disclosure would prejudice civil or court proceedings
Documents under consultation (Art. 6(1)(9))

Draft/deliberative materials still subject of consultation
Natural/cultural heritage (Art. 6(1)(10))

Protected natural or cultural heritage site information where disclosure could cause harm
Internal operations (Art. 6(1)(11))

Internal operations information whose disclosure would cause disturbances in activities of the body

All 11 exceptions are listed in Article 6(1). Public interest override (Art. 6(2)): access may be granted despite exceptions if public interest in disclosure prevails. Override does NOT apply to highest-classified information or foreign classified data. Partial access (Art. 7): bodies must provide access to non-exempt portions, redacting only exempted information.

Appeal Process

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Slovenia has a robust appeal system with an independent Information Commissioner with binding decision-making and enforcement powers (RTI Rating: 28/30 on appeals). No internal agency review step -- appeals go directly to the Commissioner. Court review available as second tier with loser-pays cost regime.

Records Retention

Retention Law

Zakon o varstvu dokumentarnega in arhivskega gradiva ter arhivih (ZVDAGA)

Authority

Arhiv Republike Slovenije (Archives of the Republic of Slovenia)

Uradni list RS, št. 30/2006 in 51/2014

View retention law →

Zakon o dostopu do informacij javnega znacaja (Access to Public Information Act)