Amendment of Act No. 412/2005 Coll.

On the 24th 5. Act No 119/2007 amending Act No 412/2005 on the protection of classified information and security clearance, as amended, entered into force in 2007. The amendment introduces changes in the following areas:

Termination of the entrepreneur's certificate (Section 56)

The amendment newly regulates the reasons for the termination of the entrepreneur's certificate, i.e.
‘Paragraph 56(1)(d) of the Law – the validity of the entrepreneur’s certificate shall expire upon the cancellation or termination of the entrepreneur’.
The validity of the entrepreneur’s certificate is therefore no longer extinguished by its ‘conversion’ within the meaning of Paragraph 69 of the Commercial Code.
Certificate of the entrepreneur who started the transformation of the company before the entry into force of this amendment, but the changes were entered in the Commercial Register after the entry into force of this amendment, remains valid provided that the information given in the entrepreneur’s certificate has not been changed or the conditions referred to in Section 16 of the Act have not been met.
If the entrepreneur was transformed pursuant to Section 69 of the Commercial Code before the entry into force of the amendment to the Act and this was already entered in the Commercial Register also before the entry into force of the amendment to the Act, the issued certificate of the entrepreneur has ceased to be valid.

At the same time, the entrepreneur's obligations under Section 68 of the Act were extended. The entrepreneur is obliged to send the National Security Authority a decision on its transformation pursuant to Section 69 of the Commercial Code within 15 days from the date of its receipt.

Termination of the certificate of a natural person (Section 56)

The amendment specifies and supplements the expiry of the certificate of a natural person:

  1. The certificate of a natural person issued by the National Security Authority shall cease to be valid upon the establishment of the service relationship of an intelligence officer or the employment relationship of an employee assigned to an intelligence service - newly Section 56(1)(h) of the Act.
  2. A member of an intelligence service shall, upon termination of the service relationship or employment of an employee assigned to an intelligence service or on the date on which a natural person ceases to be a person referred to in Section 141(1) of the Act, continue to lose the validity of the certificate issued by the relevant intelligence service or the Ministry of the Interior in the case of a certificate issued by a natural person - newly Section 56(1)(i) of the Act.

In this context, the Act was extended by a new Section 56a, which allows:

  1. the competent intelligence service in the case of expiration of the validity of the certificate of a natural person pursuant to Section 56(1)(h) and (i) of the Act issue to that person a new certificate, which replaces the original one, on the date on which his or her service or employment relationship commences.
  2. the Ministry of the Interior in the case of expiration of the validity of the certificate of a natural person pursuant to Section 56(1)(i) of the Act issue to that person a new certificate, which replaces the original certificate, on the date on which that natural person became a person referred to in Section 141(1) of the Act.
  3. the National Security Authority in all other cases expiration of the validity of the certificate of a natural person pursuant to Section 56(1)(i) of the Act issue a new certificate to that person on the day following the date of expiry of the original certificate.
    The National Security Authority shall issue a new certificate of a natural person on the basis of: written request of this natural person within 5 days from the date of delivery of the request. This request may be made by a natural person file within 30 days of the date of expiry of the original certificate. An obligatory annex to this application is the confirmation by the responsible person of the relevant intelligence service or the Ministry of the Interior that the natural person was the holder of a certificate issued by them. The certificate shall contain the details of the certificate of the natural person referred to in Section 54(2)(a) to (f) of the Act and the date of expiry of this certificate.

    Following the new ground for the expiry of the certificate, the obligations of the natural person who has access to classified information referred to in § Article 66(1)(b) of the Act o the obligation to surrender to the person who issued the certificate of the natural person within 5 days of its certificate, the validity of which has expired pursuant to § 56(1)(b) and (f) to (i) of the Act.

Special access to classified information (Section 58)

The new wording of Section 58 significantly limits the number of persons who have access to classified information of a foreign power without a valid certificate of a natural person and instruction.
Such access to classified information of a foreign power is now allowed only to the President of the Republic, the President of the Senate, the President of the Chamber of Deputies, the Prime Minister and the Minister of Foreign Affairs.

One-off access to classified information and ‘emergency situations’ (Sections 59 and 60)

The amendment unified access to classified information of a foreign power in cases of one-off access and access in "emergency situations" - only in accordance with the requirements of that foreign power.

Method of providing classified information (Section 77)

On the basis of the amendment, classified information already provided to a foreign power may be provided to another foreign power only in accordance with the requirements of the foreign power that provided it to the Czech Republic.

Appointment of an expert (Section 106)

The amendment abolished the obligation to always undergo an expert examination in the event that a security procedure is carried out for access to classified information classified at the level of Top Secret. Thus, experts can now be appointed only if facts raising doubts about the personality of a party to the proceedings are established, regardless of the level of classification. The costs of drawing up an expert opinion shall always be borne by the National Security Authority.
If an expert is appointed, the National Security Authority shall, without exception, suspend the security proceedings.