EU-Report Accession Bulgaria

Chapter 1: Free movement of goods

Since last year's Regular Report, Bulgaria has continued to make good progress in this area.

In the area of horizontal and procedural measures, a number of legislative measures were taken to remove remaining discrepancies between Bulgarian legislation and the acquis and to further separate the functions of standardisation and certification bodies, where a potential for conflict of interest was perceived. With the amendments to the Law on standardisation, conflicts of interest between standardisation and regulatory functions and/or certification were removed. However, certification activities are still not adequately segregated from accreditation. Horizontal legislative measures include in particular amendments to the Measurements Act and to the National Standardisation Act.

Work has progressed well in aligning sector specific legislation with the acquis. In the areas covered by the New Approach Directives, twelve directives (gas appliances, construction products, machinery, recreational crafts, toys, lifts, electromagnetic compatibility, simple pressure vessels, civil explosives, low voltage devices, equipment and protective systems for use in potentially explosive atmosphere, personal protective equipment) have been transposed.

In the sectors covered by the Old Approach Directives, some progress can be recorded on chemicals, cosmetics, glass, textiles and footwear, but none in the fields of motor vehicles and wood.

As regards the issue of food safety and foodstuffs legislation (see also Chapter 7 ­ Agriculture), several ordinances have been adopted as regards labelling, additives, packaging material, hygiene, irradiation and contamination, which constitutes considerable progress.

There are no developments to report on the acquis on firearms or cultural goods.

Further progress has been made on the development of administrative capacity for the implementation of horizontal and procedural measures as well as sector-specific legislation. The market surveillance infrastructure for enforcement of the newlytransposed legislation has been strengthened further since the last Report. In particular, the Customs Agency has included co-operation with market surveillance authorities as part of its strategy.

In the non-harmonised area, the principle of mutual recognition of conformity has not yet been introduced into Bulgarian legislation.

In the area of public procurement, a significant step forward was taken by amending the Law on public procurement, with effect from May 2002. However, preparation of implementing legislation foreseen under the revised law is still outstanding. The amended law confirms the Public Procurement Directorate in the Council of Ministers as the institution designated to apply national procurement legislation.

Overall assessment

While Bulgaria has reached a reasonable level of transposition in most areas, the framework Law on technical requirements adopted in September 1999, which introduced the New and Global Approach principles into domestic legislation and established the legal base for the adoption of specific New Approach directives, is still not fully in line with the acquis.

The Bulgarian Institute for Standardisation has been created as a result of the amendment to the National Standardisation Act. However, it is not yet operational as an independent State body. It will need to maintain the speed of the harmonisation process on European standards to cope with legislative development and to meet the requirements for CEN, CENELEC, and ETSI membership.

The creation of an effective network of independent certifying bodies and laboratories is still lagging behind.

As regards food safety legislation, a considerable amount of legislation has been transposed. Efforts are still required to harmonise Bulgarian legislation with the acquis, in particular removing the pre-market approval system and ensure proper implementation and enforcement of the acquis. Reinforcement of administrative capacity is still needed. In particular, laboratories need to be upgraded and accredited. Furthermore, Bulgaria should put priority on training inspectors and staff working with food.

There is co-operation between the customs authorities and market surveillance bodies. This co-operation is not yet formally regulated.

In non-harmonised areas, the Bulgarian authorities should ensure that the principle of mutual recognition is integrated into every piece of relevant Bulgarian legislation on goods. Bulgaria should also ensure that the ongoing screening procedure of Bulgarian legislation concerning all provisions which might be in breach of Articles 28-30 of the EC Treaty, will eliminate all restrictions well before accession.

The amendment to the public procurement Act is a further step towards implementation of the acquis, although it does not yet ensure full alignment and further efforts will have to be made in line with Bulgaria's commitments in this regard. Its effective enforcement, in line with the principles of the acquis, has still to be ensured. In particular, it is not yet clear how equal treatment of domestic and foreign bidders will be implemented in practice and what consequences the exemption of (semi-) private providers of mobile telecommunication services from the obligations of the law will bring. The necessary implementing legislation has not yet been developed. The review capacity of the Public Procurement Directorate remains limited and needs to be strengthened. The complaint system does not function effectively and does not provide enough protection for contractors. The appeal system needs to be further improved. New amendments to the law go as far as the Constitution allows and more substantial changes would require an amendment of the Constitution. Audit functions still need considerable strengthening. Bulgaria has made a commitment to establish a Public Procurement Agency by the end of 2002, but no formal decisions have yet been taken to this effect.

Conclusion

In its 1997 Opinion, the Commission concluded that Bulgaria's record on the implementation of its commitments on free movement of goods under the Europe Agreement was generally good. It noted, however, that the Bulgarian authorities should also ensure that, in areas not covered by Community harmonisation, their own national laws did not hamper trade. It added that, in particular, they should check that measures were proportionate to their objectives. It concluded that although there were positive indications, a considerable effort remains needed before the acquis will be fully and effectively implemented by Bulgaria. On public procurement, further efforts would be needed to adopt all the relevant acquis.

Since the Opinion, Bulgaria has made substantial progress in the field of free movement of goods as regards both the legislation and the separation of administrative responsibilities where a potential of conflict of interest existed. A reasonable level of transposition of the acquis has been reached in most areas but the level of administrative capacity and enforcement has not kept pace with this.

Negotiations in this chapter have been provisionally closed. Bulgaria has not requested any transitional arrangement in this area. It is generally meeting the commitments it has made in the negotiations on this chapter.

Bulgaria should focus further efforts on in particular the development of a national conformity assessment system. In the field of public procurement, attention should be focused on the establishment of an Agency as scheduled and in line with the commitment made by Bulgaria, as well as on ensuring effective remedies and abolition of the national preference scheme.

---

Next: Chapter 2: Free movement of
Up: The chapters of the acquis
Previous: The chapters of the acquis