EU-Report Accession Bulgaria

Chapter 13: Social policy and employment

Some progress has been made in this area since the last Regular Report.

Concerning labour law, the Employment Promotion Act, which entered into force in January 2002, further aligns Bulgaria's legislation with the Directive on collective redundancies. The newly created Employment Agency has been designated as the competent state body required by the Directive on the posting of workers in the framework of the provision of services.

No progress has been made in the field of adoption of framework legislation on equal treatment for men and women.

Through the Employment Promotion Act, the General Labour Inspectorate has been strengthened for its role in the enforcement of the acquis in the area of health and safety at work and it has been allocated additional tasks.. In some companies, a risk assessment in this area has been undertaken.

In the area of public health, a National Health Strategy for 2001­2006 was adopted in 2001 and a national programme for the restriction of smoking was adopted in January 2002. Public health reform continued. Implementing legislation was adopted in March 2002 on inpatient and outpatient health care reform and in May 2002 on structural changes in health care. Amendments to the Medical Establishments Act were adopted in May 2002. A number of contractual relationships between the National Health Insurance Fund and providers of medical services were concluded.

In the area of social dialogue, regional councils for tripartite co-operation are envisaged in legislation adopted in December 2001. The Employment Promotion Act, which entered into force in January 2002, aims to promote social dialogue, inter alia through the establishment of a tripartite National Council on employment promotion. The Act transforms the existing Regional Employment Councils into permanent or temporary Employment Committees in the framework of District Regional Development Councils. The law stipulates that regional employment programmes are to be developed and implemented by Employment Commissions at district level and monitored by Cooperation Councils. Both bodies involve the regional authorities, social partners and NGOs. In February 2002, the Government and a number of social partners signed a Charter of Social Co-operation.

Bulgaria and the European Commission have continued the work on the Employment Policy Review, with a view to finalising the Joint Assessment on Employment Policy Priorities (JAP). The purpose is to examine the progress made by Bulgaria in adapting its employment system for preparing its future participation in the European Employment Strategy after accession. This document, in its final stage, sets out the key priorities and tasks in the field of labour market for the pre-accession period. The situation on the labour market remains difficult with the high unemployment rate rising from 16.3% in 2000 to 19.9% in 2001. The unemployment rate for men was 20.8% and 18.9% for women in 2001. The high and increasing share of long-term unemployed at 63% is of great concern. A microcredit guarantee scheme was launched in November 2001 to support entrepreneurship and job creation. In January 2002, through the Employment Promotion Act, the former National Employment Service was transformed into an Employment Agency solely responsible for active labour market measures. The Act (and implementing legislation adopted in March 2002) also envisages financial compensation for employers providing jobs to unemployed persons. After joint efforts by relevant ministries and social partners, the 2002 National Action Plan on Employment was adopted in March 2002.

As regards the future management of the European Social Fund in Bulgaria, the Ministry of Labour will act as the managing authority of the human resources development operational programme.

As a follow-up to the Gothenburg European Council, where the EU invited the candidate countries to translate the EU objectives into their national policies, the Commission and Bulgaria have initiated a joint co-operation exercise to prepare for future participation in the EU social inclusion process after accession. This exercise consists in joint identification of the social exclusion challenges and relevant policy responses. In this context, the Statistical Office of Bulgaria co-operates with Eurostat to produce data on poverty and social exclusion. Preliminary figures suggest that overall income disparities seem to be rather moderate and the poverty rate after social transfers (9.2%) rather low.

As regards other areas of social protection, some measures have been taken to further implement a three-pillar pension system. In January 2002, amendments to the compulsory social security law increased the share of social security contributions to be paid by employees from 20 to 25%. The Act on Family Allowances adopted in March 2002 repealed the outdated Birth Promotion Decree of 1968 and aims to target assistance more appropriately. Amendments to the Act on protection, rehabilitation and social integration of disabled people were adopted in December 2001. The amendments aim to clarify the structure and criteria for membership of the National Council on Rehabilitation and Social Integration (a consultative body with the Council of Ministers) and to define the conditions for award of targeted benefits.

No progress has been made in adopting general anti-discrimination legislation, however the Employment Promotion Act, which came into force in January 2002, contains provisions on non-discrimination. It stipulates that when posting job vacancies, employers will not have the right to set requirements relating to gender, age, nationality, ethnic identity, or physical condition. Exceptions are allowed only when gender, age, and/or physical condition are essential factors for performing a particular type of job.

Overall assessment

As regards labour law, Bulgarian legislation is partly in line with workers' rights as defined in the acquis. Further alignment will be needed in areas where the acquis has been only partially transposed and to address other areas such as protection of employees in the case of insolvency, part-time work and European Works Councils.

Most of the acquis in the area of equal opportunities for women and men has not been transposed, including the Directives on equal pay, equal treatment in employment, pregnant workers and burden of proof. The prohibition for certain categories of women to undertake night or overtime work will have to be removed.

Regarding health and safety at work, considerable work remains with regard to transposition and particularly implementation and enforcement in this area. The capacity of the General Labour Inspectorate to perform the relevant checks in a satisfactory way needs to be further improved also in view of the additional tasks transferred to this body through the Employment Promotion Act. Given the considerable investment needed both by the Government and by companies to comply with the acquis in this area, an assessment of the financial impact from implementing individual directives in this field should be undertaken.

With regard to public health, current legislation in the field of communicable diseases is outdated. Therefore further legislative and organisational measures are needed in order to set up a system for the surveillance and control of communicable diseases in line with Community legislation. More progress in needed to improve the health status of the population, which is well below the EU average. Financial resources devoted to health are also well below the EU average and would need to be increased.

Social dialogue, particularly autonomous social dialogue, needs to be further improved. There are few collective agreements and social dialogue at the enterprise and sectoral level is weak. Further efforts are necessary to establish clear and respected criteria for representation in tripartite consultations, which should also be extended to several policy areas such as employment or social inclusion.

Regarding employment policy, the Joint Assessment of the Employment Policy Priorities of Bulgaria will represent an important step in preparation for future participation in the European Employment Strategy upon accession. It is important to ensure effective monitoring of the phasing-in of the priorities and commitments contained in the JAP. The scope of active labour market measures continued to be modest due to limited financial resources and the share of unemployed people involved in vocational training programmes is very low. The reform of vocational education needs to be completed and adapted to future needs of the labour market. This is particularly important to ease the ongoing restructuring process. It is important to review the benefit systems and their interactions to increase the incentives for unemployed and inactive to search and take up work. Further efforts need to be made to strengthen and modernise the Public Employment Services with a view to increasing involvement in active labour measures.

In the Strategy for Structural Funds, which was adopted in May 2002, the Ministry of Labour is designated as the managing authority for the human resource development operational programme. In view of its important role for future management of European Social Fund (ESF) activities after accession, the Ministry of Labour needs to improve its capacity and clarify co-operation with other relevant bodies, including the Social Investment Fund. The Ministry of Labour also needs to ensure appropriate complementarity with the ESF component of the envisaged regional operational programme.

A national integrated strategy on promoting social inclusion, taking into account the EU objectives, needs to be developed. As poverty and social exclusion are multidimensional by nature, it is important to promote an integrated approach mobilising various governmental bodies and all relevant stakeholders in the process. It is also crucial to improve and develop social statistics systems on poverty and social exclusion in line with the EU commonly agreed indicators on social inclusion.

As regards other areas of social protection, sustained efforts are required to implement the reforms that have been introduced, including health care reform.

Bulgaria should give more attention to combating discrimination based on sex, racial or ethnic origin, religion or belief, disability, age or sexual orientation. The acquis in this area has not been transposed and attention needs to be paid to proper enforcement of existing anti-discrimination law. There is not yet a comprehensive anti-discrimination act or specialised anti-discrimination body to enforce such an act.

Conclusion

In its 1997 Opinion, the Commission concluded that compatibility with EC standards was low, and existing measures were not always applied in accordance with EC practice. It added that the social system was in need of reform, and the social dialogue needed to be improved, and that very considerable efforts would be needed to ensure effective implementation. It concluded that substantive progress was required on legislative alignment and the application of the acquis before Bulgaria would be able to take on the obligations of membership.

Since the Opinion, Bulgaria has made progress in aligning with the acquis. It has achieved a degree of legislative alignment in some areas but the level remains low in other areas. Likewise much remains to be done on administrative capacity.

Negotiations on this chapter have been provisionally closed. Bulgaria has been granted a transitional arrangement (until 31 December 2010) for the implementation of EC legislation on tobacco, in particular the maximum tar yield of cigarettes. Bulgaria is generally meeting the commitments it made in the accession negotiations in this field.

Bulgaria should focus further efforts on continuing transposition, particularly in the areas of anti-discrimination, equal opportunities, labour law and occupational safety and health where considerable work remains with regard to transposition of the acquis. Furthermore, Bulgaria's efforts need to focus on effective implementation of the acquis in these areas. Social dialogue in line with EC practice needs to be fostered.

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