PA MATTERS
Government Relations & Regulatory Advocacy
Government Relations & Regulatory Advocacy
Government relations is the practice of representing a company's or association's position directly to the institutions that write and decide law. PA Matters does this in Slovakia, the Czech Republic and in Brussels, on behalf of clients in regulated sectors, and does it inside the transparency rules that apply in each jurisdiction.
We work through the formal process wherever the formal process exists — because in Central Europe it more often does than companies assume, and because positions entered on the record survive changes of government in a way that informal understandings do not.
The Slovak process, and where a company can actually intervene
Preliminary information (predbežná informácia). A ministry publishes its intent to legislate on the Slov-Lex portal before drafting. Few companies watch this stage. It is the cheapest point of influence in the entire process.
Interministerial comment procedure (medzirezortné pripomienkové konanie). The draft is published and anyone may file comments. Comments from designated bodies carry formal weight and must be resolved in a hearing (rozporové konanie). A public mass comment (hromadná pripomienka) becomes binding on the ministry to negotiate once it reaches the required threshold of supporters. This is a genuine, underused lever.
Impact assessment. Slovak drafts carry a clause on selected impacts — on business, budget, employment, environment — reviewed by a standing commission. Well-evidenced submissions on business impact land here, and they land in writing.
Government and parliament. The Legislative Council, then the government session, then three readings in the National Council with committee stages in between. Substantive changes frequently arrive at second reading as members' amendments — fast, sometimes barely debated, and the reason continuous parliamentary monitoring matters.
The Czech process
Structurally similar — draft, comment procedure via the eKLEP/ODok system, Legislative Council, government, three readings in the Chamber of Deputies, Senate, President — but conducted under a lobbying statute that Slovakia does not yet have.
Since 1 July 2025, Act No. 168/2025 Coll. on the regulation of lobbying requires systematic lobbyists to be entered in the public Register of Lobbying (RELOB), operated by the Ministry of Justice, before they lobby. Registered lobbyists must state whose interest they represent and publish semi-annual declarations. Failure to register carries fines of up to CZK 1 million, or up to 3% of assets for legal persons, plus a possible ban on the activity. Roughly 650 lobbyists were registered in the first year of the regime.
For clients this has a practical consequence worth being blunt about: in Czechia, engaging an unregistered intermediary is now a legal exposure, not merely a reputational one.
PA Matters s.r.o. has been entered in the Register of Lobbying maintained by the Czech Ministry of Justice since August 2025 and files the semi-annual declarations the Act requires. Our entry, our declared clients and our lobbying declarations are all public. View our RELOB entry.
Brussels
EU files run on a different clock and a different logic: the ordinary legislative procedure, the rapporteur and shadow rapporteurs in the lead committee, Council working parties and COREPER, and closed-door trilogues where the final text is actually settled. Public consultations on the Commission's Have Your Say portal and the delegated and implementing acts that follow a regulation are both routinely ignored by companies and both routinely decisive.
Meetings with senior Commission staff and Parliament rapporteurs require registration in the EU Transparency Register.
What we do
Position papers and draft legal wording · submissions to comment procedures and public consultations · meetings with ministry officials, MPs, MEPs and regulators · committee and hearing preparation, including briefing materials and Q&A for client executives · coalition and association work · regulatory compliance advice on how to engage lawfully in each jurisdiction.
Frequently asked questions
Is lobbying legal in Slovakia and the Czech Republic?
Yes, in both. In the Czech Republic it is expressly regulated by Act No. 168/2025 Coll. and requires prior registration. In Slovakia it is lawful and unregulated as a distinct activity, though general rules on conflict of interest, gifts and corruption apply. A Slovak lobbying bill is in the legislative process.
Do you have to register as a lobbyist to work with us?
No. The obligation under Czech law falls on the person or entity conducting the lobbying, which is us — not on you as the client. Your identity as our client is, however, published in the register. The obligation under Czech law falls on the person or entity conducting the lobbying, which is us — and we are registered. Your identity as our client is published in the register, together with the legislation we engage on and what we sought to achieve, including where we did not succeed.
Do you guarantee results?
No, and any agency that does is describing something other than public affairs. We commit to a defined workplan, access, quality of argument and honest reporting on what is and is not achievable.
Are you politically aligned?
No. We work with whoever holds the relevant office, and we do not take party political work.