Country Profile: Bulgaria

• Author: Naldini, Andrea; Pompili, Marco; Peruccacci, Eleonora
• Pages: 106-111

106

3.COUNTRY PROFI LE: BULGARI A

Introduction

Bulgaria is a fairly centralised country. Public policies are managed at the central

governm ental lev el. State aidschem es ar e handled by three Ministries: the Ministry of

Fina nce, t he Minis tr y o f Ag ric ult ur e an d Fis her ies, an d t he Mini str y of Defe nce. How eve r,

none has the legal obligation to assess the impact of State aids. The Bulgarian

authorities do not have an established evaluation culture and practice.Hence, the

following sections cover mostly the national rules for legal compliance, ex-ant e

evaluation ofState aidschemes, the governmental authorities charged with this

funct ion, and t he est ablished guidelines for ex -ant e evaluat ions.

3.1.Section 1- Nat ional rules for t he evaluat ion of State aidschemes

3.1.1.Obligation or lack ther eof to evaluate Evaluation obligation or lack of it

The Bulgarian legal fram ework contains no legal obligation to evaluate public policies.

Currently, the only mandatory public policy evaluations practised in the country are

wi thi n t he fram ew ork of EU dir ect ives, fo r e xam ple those rela ted t o t he ma nage men t o f

EU funds, which include ex-ante evaluations, impact assessments, and ex-post

evaluations related to all EU funds within operational programmes. The only legal

obligation in relation to State aidschemes is to carry outlegal compliance ex-ant e

assessments.

The prim ary law wh ich defines and regulate s State aidschem es in Bulgar ia i s th e St ate

aidAct94(2017). TheState aidActdefines St ate aidas: “anyaid, granted by the State

or through state or municipal resources, or on behalf of state or municipal resources,

directly or through ot her persons, in any for m whatsoev er, which dist orts or threat ens

to d istort fr ee compet ition by favou ring certain en terprises, th e pr oducti on o r t he t rad e

of cer tain goods, or the deliv ery of certain ser vices.”

TheState aidAct and the instructions provided by the Ministry of Finance for the

implementation of State aidevaluation focus on ex-ante evaluations. In the State aid

Act, the aidAdministrators are considered responsible for carrying out impact

evaluations and ar e required to r eport to the Minister of Fin ance. However, neith er t he

State aidAct nor the Public Finance Act, define or specify the obligation, guidance or

pr ocedures for im pact evalu ation of St ate aid.

3.1.2.Procedu res to en force evaluati on obligat ion

According to Article 21 para. 1 of thePublic Finance Act95regulating the obligation of

car rying ou t ex-ant e ev aluat ions, the heads of budgetary organ isation s are r esponsib le

for the establishment, operation and reporting of financial management and control

systems under the legislation in force. In this respect, budgetary organisations at

national, regional and local level are required to implement legal compliance ex-ant e

evaluations specifically concerning State aid. All ex-ante evaluations follow the

“Instructions forassessing compliance with State aid

94State aid Act (). State Gazette No. 85/24.10.2017. Available online at:

https://stateaid.minfin.bg/document/711

95Public Finance Act (), Prom. SG 15/02/2013, in force from 01/01/2014 ,

am ended, issue 95 from 8.12. 2015 , effect ive f rom 01 /01 /2016 , am ended and Suppl., Issue 43 of 7 June

20 16, Issu e 91 of 14/ 11/ 20 17.