Bulgaria

Overview and recent developments

Bulgaria has significantly reformed its regulatory management system as a direct result of the commencement of the Law on Normative Acts on 4 November 2016. The law has extended minimum consultation periods with stakeholders to 30 calendar days, and resulted in the establishment of a central consultation portal, which is now better integrated with Bulgarian impact assessments for regulatory proposals. The central public consultation portal also provides direct feedback to participants that explains how their submission has helped shape final regulatory proposals.

The law also introduced a new regulatory impact assessment (RIA) requirement system, whereby regulatory proposals are now subject to either a partial or full assessment. Bulgaria established an oversight body for RIA quality control at the end of 2016 so as to help ensure RIA quality.

Indicators presented on stakeholder engagement and RIA for primary laws only cover processes carried out by the executive, which initiates approx. 42% of primary laws in Bulgaria. There are requirements to conduct RIA to inform the development of primary laws initiated by parliament, although they are relatively less stringent than those for laws made by the executive.

Since the commencement of the law, all new laws, codes and sub-statutory acts of the Council of Ministers are subject to ex post evaluation within five years of their respective commencement. Although ex post evaluations have been conducted, they are limited in number and in scope, focussing only on administrative burdens for business. Assessing a wider range of impacts would help to ensure that regulations remain appropriate over time.

Institutional setup for regulatory oversight

The Council of Ministers is responsible for promoting overall regulatory policy in Bulgaria, including in relation to stakeholder engagement, RIA, and ex post evaluation. An oversight body in the Administrative Modernisation Directorate of the Council of Ministers in Bulgaria is responsible for quality control of regulatory management tools. No evaluations have yet been conducted in Bulgaria to assess the efficiency and effectiveness of any of its regulatory management tools.

The Council of Administrative Reform, established under Decree 192 of 5 August 2009, acts as an advisory body to the Council of Ministers for the co-ordination of regulatory burden reduction on both business and citizens.

Requirements to use regulatory management tools for EU-made laws: Bulgaria
Stakeholder engagement		Regulatory impact assessment
Development stage
The government facilitates the engagement of domestic stakeholders in the European Commission’s consultation process	No
Negotiation stage
Stakeholder engagement is required to define the negotiating position for EU directives/regulations	No	RIA is required to define the negotiating position for EU directives/regulations	Yes
Consultation is required to be open to the general public	NA
Transposition stage
Stakeholder engagement is required when transposing EU directives	Yes	RIA is required when transposing EU directives	Yes
The same requirements and processes apply as for domestically made laws	Yes	The same requirements and processes for RIA apply as for domestically made laws	Yes
Consultation is required to be open to the general public	Yes	RIA includes a specific assessment of provisions added at the national level beyond those in the EU directives	No
		RIA distinguishes between impacts stemming from EU requirements and additional national implementation measures	NA
Source: Indicators of Regulatory Policy and Governance Survey 2017, http://oe.cd/ireg.

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