Bulgarian Contribution
to
the Monitoring Report
of
the European Commission
Update for the period
28 April 2006- 14 July 2006
Content of the Bulgarian Contribution to the Monitoring Report of the European Commission
1. POLITICAL CRITERIA
2. ANNEX- Report on the programme for the implementation of the strategy for transparent governance and for prevention and counteraction of corruption for the period january – june 2006
3. ECONOMIC CRITERIA
4. ABILITY TO ASSUME THE OBLIGATIONS OF MEMBERSHIP - CHAPTERS OF THE ACQUIS:
CHAPTER 1: FREE MOVEMENT OF GOODS
CHAPTER 2: FREE MOVEMENT OF PERSONS
CHAPTER 3: FREEDOM TO PROVIDE SERVICES
CHAPTER 4: FREE MOVEMENT OF CAPITAL
CHAPTER 5: COMPANY LAW
CHAPTER 7: AGRICULTURE
CHAPTER 8: FISHERIES
CHAPTER 9: TRANSPORT POLICY
CHAPTER 10: TAXATION
CHAPTER 13: SOCIAL POLICY AND EMPLOYMENT
CHAPTER 14: ENERGY
CHAPTER 15: INDUSTRIAL POLICY
CHAPTER 19: TELECOMMUNICATIONS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGIES
CHAPTER 21: REGIONAL POLICY AND COORDINATION OF STRUCTURAL INSTRUMENTS
CHAPTER 22: ENVIRONMENT
CHAPTER 23: CONSUMERS AND HEALTH PROTECTION
CHAPTER 24: CO-OPERATION IN THE FIELD OF JUSTICE AND HOME AFFAIRS
CHAPTER 28: FINANCIAL CONTROL
TRANSLATION OF THE ACQUIS INTO BULGARIAN
Chapter 1 “Free movement of goods”
Public procurement
EC Finding/Recommendation:
Amendments have to be made to the implementing legislation on public procurement as a consequence of the new laws, and a whole set of implementing legislation on concessions is being drafted to enter into force in June 2006.
Preparations in the field of public procurement need to be completed as regards implementing rules.
State of Play:
The first Law on Public procurement in Bulgaria entered into force in 1999. The current Public Procurement Law (PPL) was adopted in March 2004 and was in full compliance with procurement Directives that were in force in the EU at that time. In April 2006 the National Assembly adopted a Law on Amendment of the Public Procurement Law. The amendments implement the requirements of the new Directives 2004/18/EC and 2004/17/EC and the requirements of Directives 89/665/EEC and 92/13/EEC related to the review of the procurement procedures.
One of the main consequences of the amendments to the Law is the change of the review system. All decisions, actions or lack of actions of the contracting authorities in the procedure for the award of public contracts and the granting of concessions are liable to review before a specialized administrative body as first instance – the Commission for Protection of Competition (CPC).
The new Concessions Law was also adopted in April and entered into force on 1 July 2006. It is in full compliance with the acquis and provides for the same review system as the PPL.
With the adopted legislation on public procurement and concessions Bulgaria applies requirements which are entirely harmonized with Directives 2004/18/EC, 2004/17/EC, 89/665/EEC and 92/13/EEC.
Progress since 28 April 2006:
· Secondary legislation:
Following the amendments to the PPL new Rules for the implementation of the law have been elaborated and the Ordinance for the award of small public procurement contracts has been amended. The two pieces of secondary legislation were adopted by the Council of Ministers on 14 June 2006 (State Gazette No53/30.06.2006).
In line with EC Regulation 1564/2005 introducing the European standard forms, new contract and award notices, which are used in the award of public contracts, have been elaborated. The standard forms were approved by Order NoRD-16-478/31.05.2006 of the Minister of Economy and Energy and published in State Gazette No49/16.06.2006.
The Rules for the implementation of the Concessions Law were adopted by the Council of Ministers on 22 June 2006 (State Gazette No54/04.07.2006).
The adopted secondary legislation was consulted with the relevant Commission Services and with the adoption of the acts the process of harmonization of EU acquis on public procurement was completed.
· Administrative Capacity
As a result of the Law for Amendments to the PPL and the new powers of the executive director of the Public Procurement Agency (PPA) provided in it, the staff of the Agency has been increased by 15 new staff positions. At present the Agency has a staff number of 53 staff positions.
With a view of fulfillment of the new functions of the Commission for the Protection of Competitions, the structure and organization of work of Commission have been changed. Two new directorates have been established – “Public Procurement” and “Concessions and State Aid” and the staff has been increased by 40 new staff positions.
The pilot training of contracting authorities, conducted by experts from the Public Procurement Agency, TAIEX and SIGMA, started at the end of April. Up to the present moment about 200 people from the classical and utilities sectors, experts from the state authorities and intermediate units in the operational programmes for the spending of Structural funds and the Cohesion funds, from the CPC and the controlling bodies have undergone training on the new public procurement rules. In addition a number of seminars have been organized in cooperation with non-governmental organizations.
Thus, all the necessary administrative capacity of the competent authorities in the field of public procurement has been established and the program for training of all stakeholders is continuing according to the schedule that has been agreed with European Commission Services.
· Enforcement Record
Since the entry into force of PPL on 01.10.2004 till 27.06.2006 13783 procedures were opened, 5359 under the PPL and 8424 under the Ordinance for the award of small public procurement contracts. The total value of the concluded contracts is BGN 4762216768.
For the period 01.01.2005-31.12.2005 8396 procedures were opened, 3228 under the PPL and 5168 under the Ordinance. The open competition under the Ordinance has been used in 3867 cases and the open procedure under the PPL – in 2047 cases. The procedures which were completed with conclusion of contract are 6115. The total value of the concluded contracts is BGN 3329711198.
The control over the application of the PPL in Bulgaria is exercised by two bodies: the Public Financial Inspection Agency (previous PIFCA) and the National Audit Office of the Republic of Bulgaria.
In 2005 the controlling bodies checked 1369 contracting authorities which have conducted 6399 procedures in total. From all the procedures checked 1705 were under the PPL and 4694 – under the Ordinance for the award of small public procurement contracts. A total of 1609 violations have been established.
According to the category type of contracting authority the most numerous checked bodies are the municipalities, 24.3% of all checks, followed by the educational institutions – 17.38%, budgetary enterprises – 15.55% and bodies governed by public law – 11.10%.
The cases where it was established that no procedure was conducted when there were grounds for this are 641. This type of violation has affected resources at the total value of BGN 98491000 (representing 2.96% of the total amount of procurement for that period.)
1599 conducted procedures for the award of public contracts at the total value of BGN 242833233 were checked from the beginning of 2006 to 23.06.2006. 473 violations were established in 249 procedures at the value of BGN 34697839. The cases when it was established that no procedure was conducted when there were grounds for this are 84 at the value of BGN 9487876. 137 statements for administrative violations were drawn against 106 persons. The established violations are mostly related to technical issues but all the cases of serious violations have been referred to the Prosecutor’s office.
The enforcement record clearly shows that in Bulgaria public procurement rules are respected and that strict control on contracting authorities is imposed with the appropriate sanctions for the established violations and criminal procedures for the serious offences.
· Other relevant developments:
The Public procurement register (PPR) and the Concessions register were established under the Public procurement Law and under the Concessions law. They serve as the main instrument for the provision of the principles of publicity and transparency in the public procurement system in Bulgaria.
The PPR is elaborated in line with the latest solutions in the field of information and communication technologies and is one of 20 e-services which the Bulgarian administration provides to the citizens and the business. It is public and free of charge, accessible through the internet site of the PPA. The PPR offers an online service for filling in the standard forms of notices for opening of procedure and the award of public contracts. This service is available to contracting authority who possess electronic signature and who are authorized users of the Register. This saves time and resources in the award of public contracts.
With its establishment a unified data base started functioning for the first time in Bulgaria which contains all the information related to the award of public contracts and allows monitoring and analysis of the public procurement market. The PPR provides a number of e-services and its future development is directed towards the wider introduction of information technologies and in particular to e-procurement.
Non-harmonised area
EC Finding/Recommendation:
The process of internal screening is to be repeated continuously. Measures remain to be adopted to enable the import of used cars.
Continued efforts are nonetheless needed in the non-harmonised area.
State of play
Several screening exercises on conformity of Bulgarian national legislation with the principles of articles 28-30 of the EC treaty have been performed. The results from them show that due to the fact that previously technical standards were obligatory (with no accompanying legislation) the present Bulgarian legislation generally does not contain provisions incompatible with the EC Treaty. Several cases of non-compliance were established and from them those that could not be justified under article 30 of the Treaty have been amended – e.g. the Law on Consumer Protection.
Progress since 28 April 2006
Recognizing the importance of the matter and following the recommendations from the last Comprehensive Monitoring Report, an expert network has been established with contact points in several key institutions engaged in developing legislation which can have effect on the trade in goods. This will ensure monitoring of the legislation at a draft stage in addition to the regular yearly screening of the legislation for its compliance with Articles 28 to 30 of the EC Treaty.
The requirements related to the import of used cars were analyzed in June 2006. The results of this analysis show that the import of used cars is subject to standard customs procedures and no additional requirements or restrictions are imposed, which has been proven by the high volume of such cars imported from EU countries.
Foodstuffs
EC Finding/Recommendation:
Efforts are also needed to transpose and implement the acquis on foodstuffs entry points.
State of Play
Bulgaria has transposed the entire EU acquis on foodstuffs, including with the recent amendments of the Law on Foodstuffs, which allow for the implementation of the requirements of the new Hygiene package even before Accession to the EU. The necessary administrative capacity of the competent authorities (including imports control) has been created and the staff is continuously receiving the necessary training.
Progress since 28 April 2006
By Order NoRD-09-353/30.06.2006 the Minister of Health has determined the entry points for import of certain products which are subject to special conditions on import in compliance with Decisions 2000/49/EC, 2002/79/EC, 2002/80/EC, 2003/493/EC, 2005/85/EC and 2005/402/EC. Thus, the acquis on foodstuffs entry points is transposed and the necessary arrangements for its implementation are completed.
Chapter 2 „Free movement of persons”
Conclusion/ recommendation of EC: Some progress has been made on mutual recognition of professional qualifications. Preparations are continuing, but there are concerns that Bulgaria would not be in a position to fully implement the acquis from the time of accession if the current pace of progress is not raised. Swift action is needed in this area.
State of play:
In the field of mutual recognition of professional qualifications Bulgarian legislation has been harmonized with the requirements of acquis, although some technical amendments remain to be adopted. The periods and training for acquiring professional qualification in respect to the professions regulated by sector directives– lawyers, architects, human health professions and veterinary are fully harmonized. With amendments to the Law on Vocational Education and Training and the Law on Higher Education the requirements of the general system directives (89/48/EEC and 92/51/EEC) have been transposed. With amendments to the relevant laws and secondary legislative base the requirements on mutual recognition of professional qualifications for lawyers, architects, commercial agents and veterinary have been fully transposed. The legislation that regulates the recognition of professional qualification of human health professions has been adopted. The administrative structures necessary for the application of the legislation on mutual recognition of professional qualifications as well as the “national coordinator” for the activities related to the professional qualifications recognition (the Ministry of education and science) are appointed. The necessary legislative and administrative organization for the maintenance of the List of regulated professions in the Republic of Bulgaria has been established. The work on the necessary amendments in response to the recommendations from the technical consultations with DG “MARKT” continues.
Progress since 28.04.2006
· Legislation adopted by the Parliament:
On 7th July 2006 the Parliament adopted a Law on amendment to the Law on Health. It reflects fully the recommendations by the EC (DG “MARKT”) to the Law on Health;
Amendments to the laws on the professional organizations of the doctors and doctors in dental medicine (as of 01.01.2007) and of the nurses, midwifes and the associated medical specialists have been made with the adoption of the Law on amendment to the Law on Health thus guaranteeing automatic membership of EU citizens in the respective professional organizations;
The Parliament adopted an amendment to the Commercial Law (published in State Gazette 38 of 9 May 2006) thus concluding the harmonization of the provisions related to the commercial agents as required by Directive 86/653/EEC relating to self-employed commercial agents;
· Secondary legislation:
The Council of Ministers adopted an Ordinance on the terms and procedure for maintaining the List of Regulated Professions in the Republic of Bulgaria (published in State Gazette No. 35 of 28 April 2006).