Better Regulation Practices across the European Union 2025

Bulgaria

Overview

Regulatory impact assessments (RIA) are required for all draft laws and subordinate regulations enacted by the executive and legislative branches under the 2016 amendment to the Law on Normative Acts. However, in practice most of them are partial RIAs providing a brief qualitative analysis. The Council of Ministers Administration (CoMA) can recommend Ministries to conduct a full RIA, but there is no formal threshold for when full RIAs are required. The same 2016 law requires ex post evaluations (EPE) for all new legislation (not including legislative amendments), and the CoMA has issued methodological guidance to support public bodies conducting EPEs. However, although 55 evaluations have been conducted in Bulgaria since 2019, the use of EPE remains non-systematic and mainly occurs on an ad hoc basis. Since 2016, efforts have been made to promote RIA and EPE implementation through continuous training for public servants.

Stakeholder engagement is required to inform the development of all primary laws and subordinate regulations, and is undertaken systematically once a legislative proposal has been drafted. Draft laws are published for a 30-day consultation period on Bulgaria’s online consultation platform, Strategy.bg, unless introduced through the emergency procedure. Ministries must respond publicly to comments made on the portal. Early-stage engagement with stakeholders before a draft is prepared takes place but remains ad hoc through working groups set up by ministries and is typically not open to the general public.

The Regulatory Policy Unit within CoMA is responsible for regulatory oversight in Bulgaria; it scrutinises the quality of all RIAs and stakeholder engagement where a full RIA is conducted. It also issues guidance on regulatory management tools. The Directorate also publishes yearly reports on the performance of the RIA and stakeholder engagement systems for draft regulations, including data on the percentage of RIAs and consultations that comply with applicable formal requirements.

In focus: Recent developments and next steps

Since 2021, the Council of Ministers has taken concrete actions to mainstream the use of evidence in the decision-making process. Decrees No. 218 and No. 436 in 2022 require each ministry to conduct a full RIA and EPE as a one-off measure to encourage practical adoption of these tools. Despite these efforts, better regulation tools have yet to become embedded in the institutional culture of ministries. To do so, Bulgaria should develop and publish a whole-of government regulatory policy strategy across all sectors committing at the highest possible level to regulatory quality. Bulgaria should also review its current RIA and EPE strategy to enhance their implementation in practice, and consider establishing a formal threshold for RIA to focus efforts where they can yield the highest impact.

Indicators of Regulatory Policy and Governance (iREG): Bulgaria

Note: The more regulatory practices as advocated in the OECD Recommendation on Regulatory Policy and Governance a country has implemented, the higher its iREG score. The indicators on stakeholder engagement and RIA for primary laws only cover those initiated by the executive (51% of all primary laws in Bulgaria). Transparency is one of the four dimensions that underpin each of the composite indicators on stakeholder engagement, RIA and ex post evaluation. The transparency score presents the aggregate of that dimension across the three indicators. More information can be found in the Reader’s Guide.

Source: OECD Indicators of Regulatory Policy and Governance (iREG).

Bulgaria: Regulating for…

People	Identify likely distributional effects when designing rules
	Assess impacts on different age groups when designing rules
	Assess impacts on social groups when designing rules
	Provide mechanisms for the public to give feedback on existing rules ▲
Planet	Assess impacts on the environment when designing rules
	Assess the social costs of carbon emissions when designing rules
	Assess the social costs of carbon emissions when reviewing rules
	Focus on environmental sustainability when reviewing rules ▲
Future	Address innovation-related challenges when designing rules, e.g. with increased agility or flexibility ▲
	Co-ordinate cross-government to identify regulatory issues related to innovation ▲
	Use data-driven approaches to monitor the impacts of rules ▲
	Address innovation-related challenges when reviewing rules ▲
Effectiveness	Identify a process for assessing progress in achieving regulatory goals
	Base inspection and enforcement activities on risk criteria ■
	Have regulation or policy on risk-based inspections ●
	Identify unintended consequences of rules

All primary laws/ ▲ Yes ■ Required ● Yes, there is a regulation and a policy

Major primary laws/ ● Yes, there is a regulation

Some primary laws/ ■ Not required but allowed ● Yes, there is a policy

Never/ ▲ No ■ Not allowed

Note: The data reflects Bulgaria’s practices regarding primary laws initiated by the executive.

Source: OECD Indicators of Regulatory Policy and Governance (iREG) 2024.