The Civil Code will affect civic associations and heritage care

Prague - Changes associated with the effectiveness of the new Civil Code will also affect many entities operating in culture. Organizations that currently have the status of a civic association will automatically become associations, for which different and stricter rules will apply compared to the current legal regulation.
    Civic associations belong to the entities that the Ministry of Culture provides grants to in various areas. While in the fall their representatives submitted requests as associations, grant recipients will already be associations. The law that regulates the current civic associations, namely the law on the association of citizens, will cease to exist as of December 31, 2013.
    Associations must change their name and statutes. The legal form must be included in the name of the association according to the new Civil Code, no later than two years from the date of the entry into force of the new regulation. The new Civil Code more specifically regulates, for example, the basic internal structure of associations, including subsidiary associations; the rules for the establishment and dissolution of an association will also be detailed.
    "The new Civil Code also takes into account that when liquidating an association, it is necessary to address how the fulfillment received from a public budget will be settled," said Anna Ješátková, spokesperson for the Ministry of Culture, to ČTK.
    The Civil Code divides legal entities into corporations, foundations, and institutions. Corporations are based on people, have members or partners, and include associations. Foundations are based on property; they are organizations that manage property and redistribute it according to the law to others. This includes foundations and endowment funds. As a new type of legal entity, and thus also a potential recipient of grants from the state budget, the code introduces institutions, which combine human and property principles. They do not have members like corporations, but they do have employees. They can have property, but the law does not stipulate how to manage it.
    An institution is a legal entity established to carry out activities that are socially or economically beneficial. The results of the institution's activities are equally available to everyone under the conditions predetermined by that institution. "The legal form of an institution can be applied, for example, to libraries according to the library law, which are also required to provide their services on the principle of equality - that is, to all users under the same conditions," the spokesperson stated.
    From the perspective of heritage protection, another important change is that, unlike today’s legal regulation, a building will be considered part of the land. This means, for example, that if on January 1, 2014, the landowner owns the building standing on the land, the building will become part of the land and will cease to be a separate thing. "While under the current legal regulation, only objects with certain historical values can be declared as cultural monuments, from January 1, 2014, a building (without the associated land) can also be declared as a cultural monument, although it may not be a separate thing," added the spokesperson.